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Biometrics-Security- Technical,
Privacy, Religious, Ethical Issues
CHIDANANDA.K
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Biometrics
Biometrics is the study
of computerized
methods to identify aperson by their unique
physical or behavioral
characteristics
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Types of Biometrics
Biometrics can be Divided into two classes:
PhysiologicalExamples: fingerprint, face, hand, iris, Retinal
recognition
BehavioralExamples: signature and voice
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Disadvantages
False rejection
False acceptance
One password ever Physical damage
Biometric database compromised
Corrupt matcher
Changed feature set
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Finger Prints
Cons:
Quality of scanning is Highly Variable
1-3% of public do not have suitable fingerprints
Susceptible to spoofing
Social Stigma( Public perception ofCriminality)
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Facial Recognition
Susceptible to aging Lighting and other factors
Susceptible to spoofing
Accuracy is not very High
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Iris & Retinal Scan
Poor Accuracy ( Like Retinopathy, Aging)
Specialized Cameras required
Not a well tested Technology
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Signature & Voice Recognition
Varies with mood, stress and age
Voice susceptible to change due to disease
Intrusive Operator skill required
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Biometrics: How Strong?
Three types of attacks
Trial-and-error attack Classic way of measuring biometric strength
Digital spoofing Transmit a digital pattern that mimics that of a
legitimate users biometric signature
Similar to password sniffing and replay
Biometrics cant prevent such attacks by themselves
Physical spoofing Present a biometric sensor with an image that mimics
the appearance of a legitimate user
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Voluntary finger cloning
1. Select the casting material
Option: softened, free molding plastic (used by Matsumoto)
Option: part of a large, soft wax candle (used by Willis; Thalheim)
2. Push the fingertip into the soft material
3. Let material harden
4. Select the finger cloning material Option: gelatin (gummy fingers used by Matsumoto)
Option: silicone (used by Willis; Thalheim)
5. Pour a layer of cloning material into the mold
6. Let the clone harden
Youre Done!
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Matsumotos Technique
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Making the Actual Clone
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Making a Gummy Finger from a Latent
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Finger Cloning Effectiveness
Willis and Lee could trick 4 of 6 sensors tested in1998 with cloned fingers
Thalheim et al could trick both capacitive andoptical sensors with cloned fingers
Products from Siemens, Cherry, Eutron, Verdicom Latent image reactivation only worked on capacitive
sensors, not on optical ones
Matsumoto tested 11 capacitive and opticalsensors Cloned fingers tricked all of them Compaq, Mitsubishi, NEC, Omron, Sony, Fujitsu,
Siemens, Secugen, Ethentica
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We can build physical clones of biometric
features that spoof biometric readers
Matsumoto needed $10 worth of materials and 40
minutes to reliably clone a fingerprint
We can often build clones without the
legitimate users intentional participation
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Ethical & Religious issues
Biometric Technology is nothing but a form of
tattooing at a technological level.
People feel untrustworthy and embarrassed.
Moreover, people claim they're being dehumanized. Personal data used for something other than its
advertised purpose.
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Privacy & Public concern Biometrics erode privacy
Biometric data indicates who you are
Biometric data can be used to steal your identity
Biometrics can be used to link info from various sources
A biometric can be intercepted and used to abet fraud
Biometric information is vulnerable over a network Biometrics can track you wherever you go
Biometrics stored in a database are a threat to personal
privacy
Who can access data
Misuse of personal data
What happens to biometric data after the intended use is over
Security of biometric data assured during transmission and
storage
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Some case studies
Biometric passports hacked Britain
"Vietnamese researchers have cracked the
facial recognition technology used for
authentication in Lenovo, Asus, and Toshiba
laptops
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Aadhaar: on a platform of myths
Myth: Identity theft can be eliminated using
biometrics.
The report of the UIDAI's Biometrics StandardsCommittee actually accepts these concerns as real. Itsreport notes that fingerprint quality, the mostimportant variable for determining de-duplicationaccuracy, has not been studied in depth in the Indiancontext. However, this critical limitation of the
technology has not prevented the government fromleaping into the dark with this project, one whose costwould exceed Rs.50,000 crore.
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Aadhaar: on a platform of myths
It is estimated that approximately five per cent of any
population has unreadable fingerprints, either due to
scars or aging or illegible prints. In the Indianenvironment, experience has shown that the failure
to enrol is as high as 15 per cent due to the
prevalence of a huge population dependent on
manual labour. Cont
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Aadhaar: on a platform of myths
It is said that the greatest enemy of truth is not thelie, but the myth. A democratic government shouldnot undertake a project of the magnitude of Aadhaarfrom a platform of myths. The lesson from the U.K.
experience is that myths perpetrated bygovernments can be exposed through consistentpublic campaigns. India direly needs a masscampaign that would expose the myths behind the
Aadhaar project.(R. Ramakumar is Associate Professor with the Tata
Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai.)
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Thank you !!