Biometrics Security Concerns Neha Dahiya [1] [1] M.Tech. Student, Department of Computer Science and Applications K.U., Kurukshetra, Haryana, INDIA dahiyaneha1988@gmail.com Dr. Chander Kant [2] [2] Assistant Professor, Department of Computer Science and Applications K.U., Kurukshetra, Haryana, INDIA ckverma@ rediffmail.com Abstract- Biometrics is the utilization of biological characteristics (face, iris, and fingerprint) or behavioral traits (signature, voice) for identity verification of an individual. Biometric authentication is gaining popularity as more trustable alternative to password based security systems as it is comparatively hard to be forgotten, stolen, or guessed. On the other hand, biometric data which can uniquely identify a person (e.g. fingerprints, iris patterns) can be used to track individuals, linking many separate databases (where the person has been, what he has purchased etc.), which raises privacy concerns. This paper discusses about Biometric System and its working. Various biometric technologies are also discussed and compared . Keywords: biometrics, authentication, verification, validation, recognition. I. INTRODUCTION Biometrics is the measurement of biological data. [1] The term biometrics is commonly used today to refer to the authentication of a person by analyzing physical characteristics, such as fingerprints, or behavioral characteristics, such as signatures. Since many physical and behavioral characteristics are unique to an individual, biometrics provides a more reliable system of authentication than ID cards, keys, passwords, or other traditional systems. The word biometrics [2] comes from two Greek words and means life measure. Any characteristic can be used as a biometric identifier if every person possesses the characteristic, it varies from person to person, its properties do not change considerably over time, and it can be measured manually or automatically. Physical characteristics commonly used in biometric authentication include face, fingerprints, handprints, eyes, and voice. A. Biometric Systems A biometric system is essentially a pattern recognition system that operates by acquiring biometric data from an individual, extracting a feature set from the acquired data, and comparing this feature set against the template set in the database. Depending on the application context, a biometric system may operate either in verification mode or identification mode (Fig1) [3] . In the verification mode, the system validates a person’s identity by comparing the captured biometric data with his own biometric template(s) stored in the system database. In such a system, an individual who desires to be recognized claims an identity, usually via a personal identification number (PIN), a user name, or a smart card, and the system conducts a one-to-one comparison to determine whether the claim is true or not. Identity verification is typically used for positive recognition, where the aim is to prevent multiple people from using the same identity [3] . In the identification mode, the system recognizes an individual by searching the templates of all the users in the database for a match. Therefore, the system conducts a one-to-many comparison to establish an individual’s identity [4] . Identification is a critical component in negative recognition applications where the system establishes whether the person is who he denies to be. The purpose of negative recognition is to prevent a single person from using multiple identities. Fig1. Verification and identification tasks of a biometric system B. Biometrics technologies A brief description of the commonly used biometrics [5] is given below (Fig. 2). Fig 2- Examples of biometrics a) Face , b) fingerprint c) hand geometry d) iris e) keystroke f) signature and g) voice [6] 2012 Second International Conference on Advanced Computing & Communication Technologies 978-0-7695-4640-7/12 $26.00 © 2012 IEEE DOI 10.1109/ACCT.2012.36 299 2012 Second International Conference on Advanced Computing & Communication Technologies 978-0-7695-4640-7/12 $26.00 © 2012 IEEE DOI 10.1109/ACCT.2012.36 297