007
heres an article from network computing online from may 22/98 i think. if going to agm, perhaps ask them why they didnt participate in this test. apologies from the erratic cut and paste job, but thats how it pasted...
Six Biometric Devices Point The Finger At
Security
by David Willis with Mike Lee
Every network administrator tries to balance
system security against user convenience. Users hate
security schemes that get in the way of their work, yet administrators need such procedures to track access and usage. Without clear user identification, you
can't have nonrepudiation--the assurance that
a user undeniably performed an action. So,
users are forced to struggle with elaborate
password schemes or hardware tokens to help
us track who does what.
However, you can get both security and convenience.
With low-cost fingerprint-authentication devices, users can merely put down a digit and forget about
passwords. No matter how scatterbrained a user might
be, he or she simply can't forget his or her fingers. To view the Report card.We brought
six fingerprint-recognition devices
into Network Computing's San
Mateo, Calif., Real-World Labr to
determine how convenient--and how secure--the latest
batch of these devices are.
Out of an ever-growing pack of low-cost readers, we
tested American Biometric Corp. (ABC) BioMouse,
Biometric Access Corp. (BAC) SecureTouch, Digital
Persona U.are.U, Identix's SafeTouch II, National
Registry Inc. (NRI) Secure Keyboard Scanner and
Sony Fingerprint Identification Unit (FIU). We focused
specifically on the devices themselves, because most
are not complete systems--yet.
Digital Persona's U.are.U proved to be the best device
overall, though it suffers from limited software
availability. It combines a very fast and flexible reader
with a low false reject rate (see "Biometrics Under Our
Thumb," on page 86). We couldn't break into systems
protected by U.are.U through fake finger or lifted
fingerprint techniques as we could with most of the
other devices tested. U.are.U features the simplest
installation by virtue of the Universal Serial Bus (USB)
interface, which, unfortunately, also limits its
deployment in the short run.
If you need to deploy a fingerprint-recognition device
now, then the best candidate for you is Sony FIU. Its
reader is fast and highly secure, and it supports
onboard template storage and encryption. Like
U.are.U, the FIU supports one-hand operation,
reading the fingerprint image without forcing the user to
press a capture key.
Tools or Toys All of these devices offer optical
techniques that capture a fingerprint image, using a light
source refracted through a prism. Yet there are many
physical differences among these units. Those from
BAC and Identix are heavy, bulky devices, with
complicated optics onboard, while NRI's device uses a
custom plastic lens. Sony FIU is relatively small and
lightweight, with several custom lenses inside. ABC's
product uses lightweight plastics, and Digital Persona's
device uses a thin plastic that appears to have
embedded microprisms.
We also discovered manufacturers with alternative
approaches to expensive optical devices. For example,
Who? Vision Systems manufactures a product using a
custom electro-optical polymer--a very thin,
self-illuminating film--that replaces lenses. The cost to
manufacturers per device is under $50. Another
company, Veridicom, makes a silicon-based fingerprint
sensor. Unfortunately, we were not able to get
complete products from these vendors in time for
testing.
Only the Digital Persona and Sony devices could
detect a fake finger attack by combining optical and
proprietary finger-detection methods. ABC offers an
enhancement for live finger recognition that uses
infrared and pulse detection--for an additional cost.
Without this add-on, ABC's BioMouse can be hacked
with a fake finger built from an imprint of a user's
finger--as can the BAC, Identix and NRI devices. |
