Security Challenges in the E-World

There are many tools and techniques that can sustain the management of information security and systems based on biometrics that have developed to support some attributes of information security. Identity authentication and verification practices such as keys, cards, passwords, and PIN are commonly employed security applications. Still, passwords or keys may frequently be forgotten, divulged, altered, or stolen. Biometrics is an identity authentication technique which is being used currently and is more dependable, contrasted to conventional techniques. The phrase biometrics originated from the Greek words “bios” viz. life and “metrikos” viz. measure, i.e. it is “the measurement of life”. Sir Francis Galton, author of the book Fingerprints was an English scientist well acknowledged for his theories on improving the human race through eugenics which is the application of the principles of genetics to the development of humankind and can be considered as the father of biometrics. Exactly speaking, biometrics means a science encompassing the statistical analysis of biological features. A good quality of biometric characteristics is that they are founded on something you are or something you do, so you do not necessitate to memorize anything neither to hold any token.

Potentially there are numerous reasons for the growth in security attacks; but one trend that is undeniable is the growth in the number and sophistication of cracking tools. Thus, security becomes one of the biggest issues we face today. Crackers have been utilizing the recent technological advances, freely accessible over the WWW, to access important information resources from anyplace in the world. The two most sophisticated tools to crack passwords are L0phtcrack and Pwdump3. With the growing reliance of business organizations on information networks, the security aspects of such networks is becoming necessary, particularly with the surfacing of E-Commerce over Intranets, Extra-nets, and the Internet.