ITC595: Biometric Authentication: A Security and Privacy Assessment

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ITC595
Information Security
Assessment Item 3
Biometrics for authentication: security and
privacy implications
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Abstract
Biometrics is the next generation technology for authentication and providing access. It is not
just limited to offices and organizations where employees sign in using their fingerprint, it is
now being widely used in mobile phones as well. Face scans and fingerprint readers in
mobile technology have become a common thing. This advancement in passwords and
authentication technology comes due to the fact that, conventional passwords might not be
the only possible and the strongest way to authenticate an individual, with biometrics an
individual’s unique physical or behavioural characteristics are verified to ensure that the
person has a valid access (Ashbourn, 2014). These characteristics are unique to every
individual and hence there is a lesser chance of someone else getting an illegitimate access to
confidential or private data. For stronger security implications, the biometric data is never
stored directly, it is encrypted and stored in a format that cannot be decrypted into the
original image. Even with so many advantages biometrics have to offer, some doubt how
securely is their data being stored with organizations because unlike passwords, once this
data is compromised, the users would not even be able to change it which might also result in
theft of identity. Another issue raised by the use of biometrics is that it violates the right to
anonymity and privacy in a way by objectifying the human body. With such issues in way, it
is important to understand how these systems work and why they are the best possible way of
providing proper authentication mechanisms (He and Wang, 2015).

References
Ashbourn, J. (2014). Biometrics: Advanced identity verification: the complete guide.
Springer.
He, D., & Wang, D. (2015). Robust biometrics-based authentication scheme for multiserver
environment. IEEE Systems Journal, 9(3), 816-823.