BIOSECURITY(BIO-INFORMATICS)

BIOMETRIC THE BEST SAFE-GUARD:

· Biometrics is technology that automatically authenticates, identify, or verify an individual based on physiological or behavioural characteristics.

· This process is accomplished by using computer technology in a non-invasive way to match patterns of live individuals in real time against enrolled records.

Example: products that recognize faces, hands, fingers, signatures, irises or irides, voices, and fingerprints.

PART OF BIOMETRICS IN VARIOUS FIELDS AND APPLICATIONS:

· Biometrics are most commonly used to enhance computer network security, protect financial transactions, safeguard international borders, control access to secured work sites, verify time and attendance, and prevent benefits fraud.

· Biometrics work well as stand-alone safeguards in many applications and complement other means of security in other applications.

· To verify e-commerce transactions, protect network security, and authenticate online access, biometric technologies are particularly well suited to work in conjunction with other technologies to create a multi-layered security infrastructure

BIOMETRICS:

· The word biometrics comes from the Greek words bio and metric, meaning ``life measurement''.

· By measuring something unique about an individual and using that to identify them, we can achieve a dramatic improvement in security of the key store.

· Newer biometric measurements include DNA from tissue samples, voice pattern, face pattern or even the arrangement of blood vessels in the retina or pattern of coloration in the cornea of the eye.

· The oldest and most widely accepted biometric is the fingerprint.

· The tip of every finger has a characteristic called ``friction ridges''.

· While generally similar, no two friction ridges are exactly the same.

· By imaging the ridges of the fingertips, we get the fingerprint.

SECURITY LEVEL:

· Integrating smart cards, biometrics and public key cryptography provides a solid foundation for developing secure applications and communications.

The highest level of security uses three-factor authentication:

1. Something you know (password or PIN)

2. Something you have (smart card, magnetic stripe card or a physical key)

3. Something you are (your fingerprint, retina scan or voice pattern)

AUTHENTICATION PATTERNS:

· An individual gains three-factor authentication by combining a smart card, biometric and PIN.

· If the user loses the smart card, the card is inoperable without the biometric.

· Forged fingerprints are weeded out with use of the PIN.

· In a smart-card-secure world, you are not locked into one form of authentication, such as a password or key.

BIOMETRIC SYSTEMS:

Biometric systems are :

· Automated.

· Mostly computerized systems.

· Used in Physio-biological measurements.

· Designed for detection of human body.(UNIQUE INDICATOR)