Identification

Biometrics popular, though imperfect

By Jianggan Li | 5 January 2009

Australians are supportive of the introduction of new security technologies such as biometrics as means of providing greater security for their personal data and finances a new survey reveals.

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Eighty per cent of the survey respondents said they were concerned about people obtaining and using their credit and, or debit card details. Majority of the 1200 Australians surveyed by Newspoll were worried about the security of their finances as well as their personal information.

As a result, most of the respondents are willing to use biometrics technologies such as fingerprint and iris scans. The survey reported that “seven out of 10 said they would be happy to give banks, governments and other trusted organisations their fingerprints in order to enhance their security against identity theft and financial fraud”.

Although biometrics may seem as a stronger means of security, technology leaders, government officials and security industry luminaries acknowledge that biometrics are not yet a perfect solution, said an IBM report.

To provide users with privacy, IBM suggested that organisations use a method called “cancellable biometrics” in which the true fingerprint of the user is never used anywhere.

“Instead of enrolling with your true fingerprint (or other biometric), the fingerprint is imaged and intentionally distorted in a repeatable manner, and this image is used as the identifier. If this image is stolen or otherwise compromised, a new fingerprint can be issued by simply changing the parameters of the distortion process,” explained the IBM report.