Finger Imaged

How Is the Finger Imaged?

We have seen what constitutes a fingerprint for biometric use. How the finger is imaged needs to be explained. Since finger print biometrics is active biometrics, the user must submit to the scan and needs to place his/her finger on the scanner for imaging. The scanning can be done with different technologies, but in general, they all need to capture an image of the finger. A fingerprint scanner captures the image and then transmits either the image or, if it is a trusted device, a secure response to the fingerprint scans. The technology used to scan fingers falls into two basic categories:

1.    Optical scanners

2.    Silicon scanners

Types of Algorithms Used for Interpretation

Now that we know what constitutes a fingerprint and how it can be imaged, we need to know which types of algorithms are used. The algorithms used to competition and enroll fingerprints fall under the following categories:

·         Minutia-based

·         Pattern-based

·         Hybrid algorithm

How can this Biometric be spoofed?

The risk of using any new technology needs to be evaluated. The risks to a corporation using a biometric device are a development over just the simple password used nowadays. The risk model used needs to be one of balance. That is, one should bear in mind the tradeoff between increased security and decreased user convenience, and consider the converse as well. If you decrease security, user expediency will increase. This password paradox can be negated by the fact that a biometric device will provide increased user convenience as a result of being able to use something the user has. As a effect, the user no longer needs to remember his/her network password. Since that password is replaced by something the user always has or the password is proxies on the user's behalf, this in essence increases the security of the system.

Attacks on a finger biometric system fall into the following categories:

Fingerprint biometrics provides a very robust and mature choice for a biometric technology. As such, there are many solutions on the market. The choices within the marketplace allow a company to pick the answer that is most right. With this maturity also comes familiarity. This familiarity has allowed attackers to study and try different types of attacks on fingerprint readers. A company therefore needs to evaluate its risk structure and find the right tradeoff between user convenience and security. The security part of the tradeoff involves analyzing the level of effort needed to cooperation the system and the possible loss of data or time.