The State of Biometric Authentication

Joern Wettern writes for Redmondmag.com on the state of biometric authentication.

Biometric devices can fulfill one of two functions: identification or authentication. When performing identification functions, they mainly improve the ease of use of an access control mechanism. Today, most companies use devices like that to make it easier for employees to identify themselves—placing your hand on a palm reader is often quicker and more convenient than digging out an access card or typing a username.

Meanwhile, from DefCon 2005 comes a report on a talk about how to hack biometrics.

The grand scheme of it all is that there are several places to attack, the sensor, the feature extractor, the storage computer and the comparison unit. You can also attack communication between these points, be they traces on a circuit board or a network link.