INDEPTH: COMPUTER SECURITY
Biometrics
CBC News Online | Feb. 18, 2005
Imagine this: you arrive at your office and, before you even take out your keys, a soothing voice greets you by name as your office door swings open. The lights come on as you step in. You walk up to your desk and sit down at your computer, which automatically boots up and logs you in – all this before you've even set down your coffee.
A fingerprint reader from biometrics firm Bioscrypt.
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Sounds like something out of the Minority Report movie, but the technology is already here. Proximity detectors, fingerprint and iris scanners, motion detectors, that's all it would take. Most of it can have biometric security features that would only respond to you. Much of that you can pick up at your local electronics store. Some laptops come already equipped with fingerprint scanners.
Biometrics is the use of a person's unique physical characteristics or traits to identify them. There are more and more technologies available to do this. Some biometrics use fingerprinting, facial recognition, iris scanning or even the way a person walks to identify individuals. (DNA is a type of biometric, but differs in several ways, including the fact that it involves an actual physical sample, as opposed to the comparison of an impression or image.)
Marilyn Scott is the sales director for 1010 Biometrics in New Westminster B.C., which sells fingerprint readers and iris scanners, and other biometric security devices. She says her company does a lot of its business at home shows. "Mum and dad want to keep their financial and personal information and documentation in their files private," Scott says. "This product can encrypt files and folders so that others can navigate freely through the computer, but not access certain files and folders."
Privacy concerns
As with any new technology, consumers will use what's useful and affordable, but those aren't the only considerations. One of the major concerns is privacy.
The iris scan and fingerprint techniques require your information to already be on file. Privacy advocates say there is a danger the information could be used for something else, particularly by the police, or by government.
Scott argues that the technology at the consumer level usually encrypts the information. For example, the device will scan a fingerprint, then mark unique characteristics about that print. It will then "draw" dots between those points, and make a map of the fingerprint, which it then converts into a digital code representing that fingerprint.
Scott says it isn't possible to reverse engineer the code and come up with an identifiable fingerprint. That means that while it will be possible to tell if a particular person, registered on the system, has accessed that particular device, it wouldn't be possible to hack into the system, and retrieve an image of an individual's fingerprint.
Biometric expert Peter Hope Tindall
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Biometric expert Peter Hope Tindall says there's a difference when a biometric is used voluntarily as part of office security, as opposed to a mandatory government requirement for an identity card. At work, he argues, biometrics can be a timesaving device, but an ID card is different.
"If they say, here's your new driver's licence, and every time you get pulled over, we're gong to take your fingerprints. That's a lot more concerning … where else is that information going to go?" he asks.
Hope Tindall says, "Once the info is out of the bag, there's no putting it back in the bag … I can have my locks re-keyed, but I can't have my fingers reissued."
Those in the industry argue that biometrics will increase individual security by making it harder for others to gain access to your info.
The use of biometrics is still the exception rather than the rule both at home and in offices. But Matthew Bogart with Bioscrypt, says acceptance is growing. Bioscrypt sells biometric devices and software.
Called the V-Station, this device identifies users based on their fingerprints.
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"As a mouse was once a peripheral to a laptop, and you used to have [fingerprint] sensors as peripheral to a laptop, you're now seeing sensors built right in, just as the mouse is built right in," Bogart says. "There are only a certain number that have a sensor built right in, but it's coming."
He points to the laptops as an example that biometrics will become more mainstream. "A brand like IBM, they don't enter this area lightly," he argues.
Microsoft is designing a version of Windows with the ability to work with biometric security measures.
And Bogart says there are more applications coming. "I don't think you can even see the tip of the iceberg yet. It's a little bit off in the horizon."
 NEXT: GOVERNMENT'S ROLE IN CYBER SECURITY
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