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1. What is the difference
between identification and verification?
2. What are minutiae?
3. What is a biometric key?
4. What
is the size of a fingerprint template?
5. How may
burns, scalds and cuts on fingers affect accurate fingerprint reading?
6. What about people with
rough hands?
7. What about people with
dry or wet hands?
8. How many minutiae are
necessary for a comparison?
9. What
do I need to know about biometrics?
1.
What's the difference between identification and verification?
Verification authenticates an individual by comparing ONE SPECIFIC
fingerprint stored in the database, while identification means
comparing ALL the fingerprints stored in the database. This is why
verification is also called one-by-one identification process. Before
fingerprint verification takes place, the user’s code has to
be
inputted. Verification is, of course, much faster than identification.
2.
What are minutiae?
Minutiae are unique points of a fingerprint that unequivocally identify
it. They can be, for instance, information relating to where furrows
end or bifurcate, or where they are Y-shaped. Even monozygotic twins
have different minutiae.
3.
What is a biometric key?
A biometric key is a set of information about an individual’s
specific physical feature. A good biometric key must be unique in each
individual. Good biometric keys are, for instance:
- face image
- iris image
- fingerprint image
Differently from
“traditional keys” (e.g.: door keys, computer
passwords
etc.) used to identify people, a biometric key cannot be given or lent
to anyone.
4.
What is the size of a fingerprint template?
The size of a fingerprint template is 300 bytes on average and cannot
exceed 1 KB, depending on the fingerprint image
5.
How may burns, scalds and cuts on fingers affect accurate fingerprint
reading?
Medical tests show that damaged skin heals rapidly and that the same
fingerprint pattern as before is thus restored. However, if deep scars
are left as a consequence of a bad injury, a new reference fingerprint
image needs to be enrolled.
6.
What about people with rough hands?
Fingerprint images of people having rough hands due to their jobs (e.g.
construction workers) may not be excellent. This problem is usually
solved through repeated verifications or by adjusting
iGuard’s
security level. Another way to reduce false rejection rates is to use
more than one reference image per finger, thus increasing reliability
of the recognition process.
7.
What about people with dry or wet hands?
Dry fingers, which are typical of people with dry skin, very often
leave a very light and uneven image, thus reducing identification.
While other optical sensors are often coated with silicon (which wear
out rather easily), iGuard uses DFX software technology (developed by
Veridicom) to reduce this problem. For the verification process to be
further improved, users can rub their noses or foreheads with their
fingers to increase finger pressure, or they can use some hand cream to
minimize this problem. Wet fingers, on the contrary, are typical of
people with sweaty hands or may be the effect of putting too much hand
cream. They usually leave fingerprints with squashed ridges and appear
as smeared in the image, or they may even leave a completely black
image. Hand washing and less finger pressure can reduce this problem.
8.
How many minutiae are necessary for a comparison?
A complete fingerprint consists of 100 minutiae. The Veridicon sensor
used in iGuard can recognise between 20 and 30. Please notice, however,
that European courts accept fingerprints with 12 positive matches as
unambiguous identification.
9.
What do I need to know about biometrics?
Introduction
to biometrics. Since
the tragic events of September 11th in the US and, more recently, in
the EU, there has been an increased demand for security measures. The
use of biometric features – such as fingerprints, iris
recognition, face and hand geometry – to identify or
authenticate
an individual is, under appropriate conditions, the only tool which can
confirm an individual’s identity, based on unique and
non-reproducible features. In many countries exposed to the risk of
terrorist attacks, including the USA and the countries of the EU, the
integration of biometric features in passports is being discussed.
Identification processes would thus become more reliable. Within this
context, initiatives have been promoted in Italy too, where biometric
passports and residence permits – still at the experimental
stage
– will be introduced. The remarkable potentials offered by
biometric technologies to authenticate identities have brought about a
widespread interest in these technologies which is not only limited to
investigation and prevention. The problems originating from the rapid
digitalisation of information and the widespread use of networks are of
crucial importance in terms of security in data access and online
services. The first problem any public or private organisation faces
when dealing with identification is to be sure that, whomever accesses
confidential or sensitive sources of information, is really who they
state they are. The most common measures adopted today are based on
password login and are sometimes unable to guarantee an appropriate
security level. With the exception of AFIS applications, biometric
technologies used in the Italian public administration were, up to few
years ago, limited to devices controlling access to sensitive areas,
e.g. military sites. However, public services are now increasingly
interested in biometric technologies to gain control over access to
critical computer applications or sensitive data from employees or
users of online services. An example of this is E-POLL, the electronic
voting experiment carried out in Italy under the EU fifth Framework
Programme for Research and Development using a smart card with an
embedded fingerprint reader authenticating the identity of a citizen
and voter. The combined use of biometric data and smart card makes it
possible to assert the legal ownership of a specific card on the basis
of “stronger” features than a normal PIN code.
Furthermore,
smart cards containing users' biometric data allow a more simple
management of privacy issues. Therefore, the combined use of the two
devices mentioned above lends itself both to contexts where
authentication is of critical importance (e.g. digital signatures) and
to a general control of physical and logical access of employees (e.g.
multi-service smart card for the Italian Ministry of Defence).
Study group on biometric technologies.
Considering
the importance biometric technologies can have in e-government and,
more generally, in the relations between citizens and institutions, the
CNIPA (National Centre for Information Technology in Public
Administration) has decided to carry out an in-depth analysis of
technical and regulatory aspects of biometrics and its fields of
application, with particular attention to e-government. The CNIPA set
up a study group on biometric technologies in July 2003 which concluded
their activities in November 2003 and delivered a report containing:
- an analysis on the
state of
biometrics carried out through consultations with market analysts,
academics, suppliers and other representatives of public administration
being interested in the issue;
- proposals for the
production of guidelines, events, workshops; the setting up of study
groups, and the carrying-out of experiments providing the Public
Administration with evaluation tools and information in the field of
biometrics.
Permanent
working group.
Given the activities carried out by the study group and considering the
increasing interest in biometric technologies from public
administration, the CNIPA set up a permanent working group in November
2003 – formally founded in March 2004 – with the
aim of
producing guidelines on biometric technologies. The permanent working
group, directed by Claudio Manganelli, aims at providing the Italian
public administration with appropriate guidelines concerning the use of
biometric technologies. Their research was concluded 12 months after
the group was set up. The first version of these guidelines was
presented on 13th and 14th October 2004 at a conference devoted to the
technological, legal and social aspects of biometrics in public
administration within the framework of study conferences on the role of
communication and information technologies in modernising public
administration. The working group consisted of some members of staff of
CNIPA, including Alessandro Alessandroni, coordinator and responsible
for the “Market Observatory” Department; Giovanni
Manca,
responsible for the “Standard, Architecture and
Methodology” Department; Giovanni Rellini Lerz, personal
assistant of Claudio Manganelli; Stefano Venanzi, responsible for the
“Legal Support” Department, consultants, academics
and
researchers, like Dario Maio and Davide Maltoni, Mario Savastano,
Valeria Mirabella etc. The permanent working group also included
representatives of corporate associations and confederations (ANASIN,
ANIE, ASSINFORM, ASSINTEL, FEDERCOMIN), representatives of the Ministry
of Justice (Stefano Aprile) and of the Ministry for Internal Affairs
(Stefano Petecchia). Considering the relevance of issues pertaining to
the protection of personal data in the use of biometric technologies,
the CNIPA requested the cooperation the Institution for the Protection
of Personal Data, represented by Cosimo Comella, who closely followed
and analysed the group's activities.
Centre for Biometric Competence.
Given the confidential nature of some activities, the CNIPA also set up
a Centre for Biometric Competence to support the Italian public
administration in the information, experimentation activities and in
the use of biometric technologies. It consists of members of the
permanent working group and is supported by experts in the field of
research (Mario Savastano) and representatives of public
administrations who already experienced the use of biometric
technologies (Stefano Petecchia). The Centre for Biometric Competence
was in charge of watching the development of biometric technologies,
especially in the PAC and PAL sectors as well as systematising support
to public administrations by ensuring:
- pooling of
technological and organisational know-how and expertise;
- enhanced expertise and
assistance to public administrations;
- harmonisation with
international projects having similar objectives.
It is also in charge of supporting the Board in delivering opinions
about projects involving the use of biometric tools.
For further information,
please write to biometria@cnipa.it, available
for
- public administrations
- research and university
institutes
- suppliers of biometric
solutions
Further
details
Public documents delivered
by GdS, CdC, GdL:
- Brief remarks on
biometric technologies within an ICT context (PDF - 400 KB)
- Guidelines on biometric
technologies (PDF - 95 KB)
Other useful links:
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