Biometrics

Biometrics uses methods for unique recognition of humans based upon one or more intrinsic physical or behavioral traits. In computer science, particularly, biometrics is used as a form of identity access management and access control. It is also used to identify individuals in groups that are under surveillance. The book consists of 13 chapters, each focusing on a certain aspect of the problem. The book chapters are divided into three sections: physical biometrics, behavioral biometrics and medical biometrics. The key objective of the book is to provide comprehensive reference and text on human authentication and people identity verification from both physiological, behavioural and other points of view. It aims to publish new insights into current innovations in computer systems and technology for biometrics development and its applications. The book was reviewed by the editor Dr. Jucheng Yang, and many of the guest editors, such as Dr. Girija Chetty, Dr. Norman Poh, Dr. Loris Nanni, Dr. Jianjiang Feng, Dr. Dongsun Park, Dr. Sook Yoon and so on, who also made a significant contribution to the book

A Proposed Cryptography-Based Identity Management Scheme for Enhancing Enterprise Information Systems Security

Enterprises are faced with the challenges of managing users’ identity across multiple systems and applications.User identity usually includes personal information such as names, contact information, and demographic data;legal information which is the information about legal relationship between the enterprise and the user; and logincredentials to managed systems for identification and authentication such as login ID and password, PKI certificate,tokens, biometrics, and so on. As a result of these challenges, enterprises contend with problems of datainconsistency, repetition of access to multiple systems, security exposure, unreliability of data, complexity insystems usage, and difficulty in managing large data. These problems are compounded as enterprises deploy moreIT infrastructures (systems and applications) and have more users (employees, customers, partners, contractors,vendors, and so on).Our research is aimed at addressing these challenges by building on existing identitymanagement technologies through the creation of a hybrid technology using Identity Management andCryptographic techniques. We present the research direction in this paper.Keywords: Enterprises, Identity Management, Identity Management Technology, Cryptograph

Unconscious Biometrics for Continuous User Verification

In user management system, continuous or successive (ondemand) authentication is required to prevent identity theft. In particular, biometrics of which data are unconsciously presented to authentication systems is necessary. In this paper, brain waves and intra-palm propagation signals are introduced as biometrics and their verification performances using actually measured data are presented

Opportunities and Challenges for Biometric Systems in Travel: a Review

As biometric technology provide superior levels of accuracy, security, and convenience, it is important to understand the extent to which they are applicable in travel. This research reviews the applicability of biometric technology in travel, emphasizing the most critical opportunities and challenges. The opportunities offered by biometric systems in travel can materialize in superior identity management, increased convenience, and better human resource management. Such opportunities can be achieved through specific biometric applications, such as identity management and immigration systems, registered traveler programs, biometric passports, hotel access systems, and payment/retail systems in hotels/restaurants/resorts. Although biometric applications are promising in travel, their large-scale deployment by organizations and adoption by travelers is hindered by a number of challenges. Such challenges include privacy, fear of harm resulting from using the system, and general user anxiety, which need to be addressed before large-scale deployment of biometrics in travel, to guarantee adoption and its associated benefits

Revocable, Interoperable and User-Centric (Active) Authentication Across Cyberspace

This work addresses fundamental and challenging user authentication and universal identity issues and solves the problems of system usability, authentication data security, user privacy, irrevocability, interoperability, cross-matching attacks, and post-login authentication breaches associated with existing authentication systems. It developed a solid user-centric biometrics based authentication model, called Bio-Capsule (BC), and implemented an (active) authentication system. BC is the template derived from the (secure) fusion of a user’s biometrics and that of a Reference Subject (RS). RS is simply a physical object such as a doll or an artificial one, such as an image. It is users’ BCs, rather than original biometric templates, that are utilized for user authentication and identification. The implemented (active) authentication system will facilitate and safely protect individuals’ diffused cyber activities, which is particularly important nowadays, when people are immersed in cyberspace. User authentication is the first guard of any trustworthy computing system. Along with people’s immersion in the penetrated cyber space integrated with information, networked systems, applications and mobility, universal identity security& management and active authentication become of paramount importance for cyber security and user privacy. Each of three typical existing authentication methods, what you KNOW (Password/PIN), HAVE (SmartCard), and ARE (Fingerprint/Face/Iris) and their combinations, suffer from their own inherent problems. For example, biometrics is becoming a promising authentication/identification method because it binds an individual with his identity, is resistant to losses, and does not need to memorize/carry. However, biometrics introduces its own challenges. One serious problem with biometrics is that biometric templates are hard to be replaced once compromised. In addition, biometrics may disclose user’s sensitive information (such as race, gender, even health condition), thus creating user privacy concerns. In the recent years, there has been intensive research addressing biometric template security and replaceability, such as cancelable biometrics and Biometric Cryptosystems. Unfortunately, these approaches do not fully exploit biometric advantages (e.g., requiring a PIN), reduce authentication accuracy, and/or suffer from possible attacks. The proposed approach is the first elegant solution to effectively address irreplaceability, privacy-preserving, and interoperability of both login and after-login authentication. Our methodology preserves biometrics’ robustness and accuracy, without sacrificing system acceptability for the same user, and distinguishability between different users. Biometric features cannot be recovered from the user’s Biometric Capsule or Reference Subject, even when both are stolen. The proposed model can be applied at the signal, feature, or template levels, and facilitates integration with new biometric identification methods to further enhance authentication performance. Moreover, the proposed active, non-intrusive authentication is not only scalable, but also particularly suitable to emerging portable, mobile computing devices. In summary, the proposed approach is (i) usercentric, i.e., highly user friendly without additional burden on users, (ii) provably secure and resistant to attacks including cross-matching attacks, (iii) identity-bearing and privacy-preserving, (iv) replaceable, once Biometric Capsule is compromised, (v) scalable and highly adaptable, (vi) interoperable and single signing on across systems, and (vii) cost-effective and easy to use

Advanced Biometrics with Deep Learning

Biometrics, such as fingerprint, iris, face, hand print, hand vein, speech and gait recognition, etc., as a means of identity management have become commonplace nowadays for various applications. Biometric systems follow a typical pipeline, that is composed of separate preprocessing, feature extraction and classification. Deep learning as a data-driven representation learning approach has been shown to be a promising alternative to conventional data-agnostic and handcrafted pre-processing and feature extraction for biometric systems. Furthermore, deep learning offers an end-to-end learning paradigm to unify preprocessing, feature extraction, and recognition, based solely on biometric data. This Special Issue has collected 12 high-quality, state-of-the-art research papers that deal with challenging issues in advanced biometric systems based on deep learning. The 12 papers can be divided into 4 categories according to biometric modality; namely, face biometrics, medical electronic signals (EEG and ECG), voice print, and others

A Study on Evoked Potential by Inaudible Auditory Stimulation toward Continuous Biometric Authentication

Biometrics have been used in person authentication. However, conventional biometrics have a vulnerability to the identity theft, especially in user management systems. In order to prevent the identity theft, the effective way is to authenticate continuously. However, the continuous authentication requires unconscious biometrics. The authors have been studied to use brain waves as the unconscious biometrics. In conventional studies, the authors had used spontaneous brain waves; however, their verification performance was not so high. Thus, the authors propose to use evoked potentials by supersonic sounds, which cannot be perceived by human beings. In this paper, the authors examine the characteristics of evoked potentials by supersonic sounds and confirm that the spectrum in the band is increased at the electrodes on the back of the head. This phenomenon could be used as an individual feature in person verification

Infrastructure of compassionate repression: making sense of biometrics in Kakuma refugee camp

My article focuses on the pilot of a Biometric Identity Management System (BIMS) for the distribution on in-kind aid in Kakuma refugee camp, in Kenya’s Turkana county, to examine the perception of biometric systems of verification by refugees. It explores how Somali refugees reflect on the implications of BIMS for their relations vis-à-vis humanitarian organizations, the Kenya state and other refugees, making sense of the humanitarian rationality tasked with both managing and policing populations in need. It thus argues that biopolitical technologies such as biometrics highlight, and heighten, the tension between care and surveillance as refugees challenge the official motives behind biometric infrastructures with counter-narratives situated in a specific socio-political milieu. Through an intense interpretative labor, which I captured in interviews and focus group discussions in Kakuma and Eastleigh, Nairobi, refugees open a crack in the apolitical veneer of humanitarianism, revealing, and challenging, the politics of biometrics

Quantum surveillance and 'shared secrets'. A biometric step too far? CEPS Liberty and Security in Europe, July 2010

It is no longer sensible to regard biometrics as having neutral socio-economic, legal and political impacts. Newer generation biometrics are fluid and include behavioural and emotional data that can be combined with other data. Therefore, a range of issues needs to be reviewed in light of the increasing privatisation of ‘security’ that escapes effective, democratic parliamentary and regulatory control and oversight at national, international and EU levels, argues Juliet Lodge, Professor and co-Director of the Jean Monnet European Centre of Excellence at the University of Leeds, U