Privacy-Preserving Biometric Authentication

Biometric-based authentication provides a highly accurate means of authentication without requiring the user to memorize or possess anything. However, there are three disadvantages to the use of biometrics in authentication; any compromise is permanent as it is impossible to revoke biometrics; there are significant privacy concerns with the loss of biometric data; and humans possess only a limited number of biometrics, which limits how many services can use or reuse the same form of authentication. As such, enhancing biometric template security is of significant research interest. One of the methodologies is called cancellable biometric template which applies an irreversible transformation on the features of the biometric sample and performs the matching in the transformed domain. Yet, this is itself susceptible to specific classes of attacks, including hill-climb, pre-image, and attacks via records multiplicity. This work has several outcomes and contributions to the knowledge of privacy-preserving biometric authentication. The first of these is a taxonomy structuring the current state-of-the-art and provisions for future research. The next of these is a multi-filter framework for developing a robust and secure cancellable biometric template, designed specifically for fingerprint biometrics. This framework is comprised of two modules, each of which is a separate cancellable fingerprint template that has its own matching and measures. The matching for this is based on multiple thresholds. Importantly, these methods show strong resistance to the above-mentioned attacks. Another of these outcomes is a method that achieves a stable performance and can be used to be embedded into a Zero-Knowledge-Proof protocol. In this novel method, a new strategy was proposed to improve the recognition error rates which is privacy-preserving in the untrusted environment. The results show promising performance when evaluated on current datasets

Mejora de la seguridad y la privacidad de los sistemas biométricos

Tesis doctoral inédita leída en la Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Escuela Politécnica Superior, Departamento de Tecnología Electrónica y de las Comunicaciones. Fecha de lectura: 02-06-2016This Thesis was printed with the financial support from EPS-UAM and the Biometric Recognition Group-ATVS

Mixing Biometric Data For Generating Joint Identities and Preserving Privacy

Biometrics is the science of automatically recognizing individuals by utilizing biological traits such as fingerprints, face, iris and voice. A classical biometric system digitizes the human body and uses this digitized identity for human recognition. In this work, we introduce the concept of mixing biometrics. Mixing biometrics refers to the process of generating a new biometric image by fusing images of different fingers, different faces, or different irises. The resultant mixed image can be used directly in the feature extraction and matching stages of an existing biometric system. In this regard, we design and systematically evaluate novel methods for generating mixed images for the fingerprint, iris and face modalities. Further, we extend the concept of mixing to accommodate two distinct modalities of an individual, viz., fingerprint and iris. The utility of mixing biometrics is demonstrated in two different applications. The first application deals with the issue of generating a joint digital identity. A joint identity inherits its uniqueness from two or more individuals and can be used in scenarios such as joint bank accounts or two-man rule systems. The second application deals with the issue of biometric privacy, where the concept of mixing is used for de-identifying or obscuring biometric images and for generating cancelable biometrics. Extensive experimental analysis suggests that the concept of biometric mixing has several benefits and can be easily incorporated into existing biometric systems

Recent Application in Biometrics

In the recent years, a number of recognition and authentication systems based on biometric measurements have been proposed. Algorithms and sensors have been developed to acquire and process many different biometric traits. Moreover, the biometric technology is being used in novel ways, with potential commercial and practical implications to our daily activities. The key objective of the book is to provide a collection of comprehensive references on some recent theoretical development as well as novel applications in biometrics. The topics covered in this book reflect well both aspects of development. They include biometric sample quality, privacy preserving and cancellable biometrics, contactless biometrics, novel and unconventional biometrics, and the technical challenges in implementing the technology in portable devices. The book consists of 15 chapters. It is divided into four sections, namely, biometric applications on mobile platforms, cancelable biometrics, biometric encryption, and other applications. The book was reviewed by editors Dr. Jucheng Yang and Dr. Norman Poh. We deeply appreciate the efforts of our guest editors: Dr. Girija Chetty, Dr. Loris Nanni, Dr. Jianjiang Feng, Dr. Dongsun Park and Dr. Sook Yoon, as well as a number of anonymous reviewers