THAR UNIVERSITY

AKA

SEMINAR REPORT ON BIOMETRIC AUTHENTICATION SYSTEMS

by

NJOROGE PATRICK NJUNGE

EBT1/00726/19
Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...............................................................................................................................2
BACKGROUND OF STUDY.............................................................................................................2
ANALYSIS...........................................................................................................................................4
Types of biometrics systems............................................................................................................4
i. Facial recognition.................................................................................................................4
ii. Fingerprint recognition.......................................................................................................4
iii. Iris recognition.................................................................................................................4
iv. Verification by the use of signatures...............................................................................4
v. Hand geometry.....................................................................................................................4
Security issue of biometrics and its solution..................................................................................5
CONCLUSION....................................................................................................................................5
 INTRODUCTION
Biometric authentication is a security procedure that uses unique biological characteristics of
individuals such as retinas, irises, voices, facial characteristics, and fingerprints to verify
people are who they say they are. This procedure is used to manage physical and digital
resources such as buildings, rooms, and various devices

Due to advancement in technology, everyday actions are increasingly being handled

electronically. The growth in electronic transactions has called a greater demand for fast and
accurate automatic user identification and authentication. Today biometrics is employed
widely in authenticating users in day-to-day services. These services include the banking
services, businesses, which contains sensitive data which needs to be highly protected. The
need for protection of the data have enhanced the use of biometric authentication which is a
more reliable and secure method.

BACKGROUND OF STUDY
Traditionally two major types of authentications have been used, the knowledge base and the
token based. In knowledge base peoples use something they know to identify them; these
includes the passwords. Token based use something you have to recognize you, these
includes the smart cards, physical keys etc. the weakness of these systems is that passwords
can be forgotten and tokens get lost, stolen or duplicated.

With the advent of Biometrics, level of security has improved because the users are
authenticated by their physical traits which they belong to them alone. When it comes to
safety the first step is verification, and afterward, authentication is done.

In modern world mobile devices such as smartphones helps us to handle our tasks from
wherever we are able to connect to the internet. Due to many services that are provided the
user uses the biometrics to authenticate them. These makes it a better method of
authentication since the use doesn’t need to create a bunch of passwords which may be
forgotten.

The authentication process is performed in two different stages:

1. Enrolment stage. This phase is performed only once, since it inserts the specific
biometric characteristic into the system database. During this phase three specific
tasks are performed: first, the scanning of the biometric characteristic, then the
creation of a compact but expressive digital representation of it, usually called a
template. Finally, the template is then recorded in the database.
2. Identification stage. This phase is repeated at each transaction. During this phase, the
system identifies the person at the point of access. The tasks performed are three:
again, the scanning of the biometric characteristic and the creation of an optimized
digital representation, then the matching against the template(s) to establish the
identity of the individual. Depending on the matching result, the user will be either
accepted or rejected.
 ANALYSIS

Biometric has become the most convenient method of authentication and identification
because it uses the physical characteristics of an individual. The convenience is because the
physical traits cannot be forgotten as the passwords do.

Types of biometrics systems

i. Facial recognition
Our facial structure is the primary approach that people leverage to remember each other. It is
also a well exposed biometric technology that is used for human identification and
authentication. Now when we have high-quality cameras with the ability to zoom, it is also
likely to recognize a subject from the distance, making facial recognition also suitable for
security and surveillance applications.
ii. Fingerprint recognition

The Fingerprint recognition is one of the oldest and, an efficient biometrics method since
fingerprints have long been recognized as an accurate and primary identification method as
the fingerprints of different individuals are not the same. Like all the other biometrics
technology, it identifies and verifies a person's fingerprint with data saved in it beforehand. It
uses the patters of the people’s fingertips to identify them.

iii. Iris recognition.

In this system the patterns of the iris are used to identify and verify a person.

iv. Verification by the use of signatures.

The systems identify a person by the unique patters made by a person’s signature.

v. Hand geometry.

The system identifies and verifies an individual according to the shape and the size of their
hand.
Security issue of biometrics and its solution

Biometrics seem secure on the surface. After all, you’re the only one with your ears, eyes,
and fingerprint. But that doesn’t necessarily make it more secure than passwords. A password
is inherently private because you are the only one who knows it. Of course, hackers can
acquire it by brute force attacks or phishing, but generally, people can’t access it. On the
other hand, biometrics are inherently public.

Biometrics is a better method of identification and authentication however it has some

limitations which need to be addressed. The system may be fed with artificial biometrics
from the attacker the attacker who tries to obtain an image or some other representation of an
accepted biometric and creates a copy of it. Afterwards, the copy is used to pass the biometric
authentication system. The usage of fingerprints is particularly susceptible to these kinds of
attacks, because it is quite easy for the attacker to obtain an image of a valid fingerprint. This
is a very crucial problem since the physical traits of a person cannot be changed unlike the
password. The security of these systems should therefore be kept high by combining the
biometric authentication system with the multi-factor authentication.

Multifactor authentication (MFA) is a security technology that requires multiple methods

of authentication from independent categories of credentials to verify a user's identity for a
login or other transaction. Multifactor authentication combines two or more independent
credentials.

The goal of MFA is to create a layered defence that makes it more difficult for an
unauthorized person to access a target, such as a physical location, computing device,
network or database. If one factor is compromised or broken, the attacker still has at least one
or more barriers to breach before successfully breaking into the target.

CONCLUSION
Biometric authentication system has proven to be the most essential part of modern security
systems by being reliable and convenient method of identification and authentication. With
increased advancement in technology biometrics are likely to become even more adopted and
accepted method of authentication and identification in the years to come. For the acceptance
of the biometrics as the best method of authentication and identification high security must be
incorporated to avoid vulnerabilities from the attackers.