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4 February 2005
A case for biometrics
DANNY ILIC
, HEAD: STRATEGIC BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT
[
4 February 2005
] -
Biometrics, or the science of recognising a person on the basis of physical or behavioural characteristics, has over the years impressed a lot of companies and users, but at the same time also gained – as many other technologies – a fair share of critics.
However, despite the criticism, one cannot help but admire the technology's ability to make conventional passwording seem unnecessary. The flip side is that, as some critics point out, users might be unwittingly sacrificing a great deal of privacy.
Things you carry such as keys, ID or driver's licence can all be lost, and the same goes for things like passwords or a personal ID sign-on, but biometrics relies on who you are – on one of any number of unique characteristics that you can't lose or forget.
Biometrics can be set to varying degrees of security, by increasing the system it becomes very restrictive, resulting in an increased false rejection rate which is, if anything, a nuisance or inconvenience; however, if set too low the results could be disastrous.
So, to cut to the chase, biometrics systems sacrifice a measure of privacy in order to be accurate – in order to verity your face, finger or iris you must have some personal information on file, which can be stolen and made available publicly.
But despite the obvious drawbacks, biometric systems are becoming increasingly popular, both as standalone systems and as added security on top of other security systems, as it is effective and convenient.
Computer Associates' eTrust Single Sign-On feature, which forms part of our eTrust Identity and Access Management suite, offers a directory-based architecture allowing for roaming sessions and controlled access to share workstations.
Importantly, it increases access security by offering improved authentication of users via biometrics, digital certificates ad security tokens, among others.
Undoubtedly, biometrics strengthens security – contrary to the notion that computer security is like putting a wooden stake in front of your house, hoping that someone will run into it.
Biometrics effectively trades some amount of privacy for convenience – and in today's climate it won't be a wrong move to adopt these systems as additional layers of security on top of our identity and access management endeavours.
However, despite the criticism, one cannot help but admire the technology's ability to make conventional passwording seem unnecessary. The flip side is that, as some critics point out, users might be unwittingly sacrificing a great deal of privacy.
Things you carry such as keys, ID or driver's licence can all be lost, and the same goes for things like passwords or a personal ID sign-on, but biometrics relies on who you are – on one of any number of unique characteristics that you can't lose or forget.
Biometrics can be set to varying degrees of security, by increasing the system it becomes very restrictive, resulting in an increased false rejection rate which is, if anything, a nuisance or inconvenience; however, if set too low the results could be disastrous.
So, to cut to the chase, biometrics systems sacrifice a measure of privacy in order to be accurate – in order to verity your face, finger or iris you must have some personal information on file, which can be stolen and made available publicly.
But despite the obvious drawbacks, biometric systems are becoming increasingly popular, both as standalone systems and as added security on top of other security systems, as it is effective and convenient.
Computer Associates' eTrust Single Sign-On feature, which forms part of our eTrust Identity and Access Management suite, offers a directory-based architecture allowing for roaming sessions and controlled access to share workstations.
Importantly, it increases access security by offering improved authentication of users via biometrics, digital certificates ad security tokens, among others.
Undoubtedly, biometrics strengthens security – contrary to the notion that computer security is like putting a wooden stake in front of your house, hoping that someone will run into it.
Biometrics effectively trades some amount of privacy for convenience – and in today's climate it won't be a wrong move to adopt these systems as additional layers of security on top of our identity and access management endeavours.
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CA
Computer Associates International, Inc (NYSE:CA), the world's largest management software company, delivers software and services across operations, security, storage, lifecycle and service management to optimise the performance, reliability and efficiency of enterprise IT environments. Founded in 1976, CA is headquartered in Islandia, New York, and operates in more than 100 countries. For more information, please visit http://ca.com. EDITORIAL CONTACTS
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