Biometric Authentication
Biometrics is a category of combination hardware-software systems that recognize a person by taking a measurement of an individually distinct physical trait, like a fingerprint or the shape of a face. Fingerprint scanners are a common sight these days. They protect access to everything from laptop computers to ATM machines. But the list of biometric tech tools includes iris and retinal scanners, facial recognition systems, hand-geometry analyzers, voice-print technologies, and emerging systems that identify vein patterns in the palm of a . Even behavioral identifiers, such as handwriting ID solutions that measure the pressure, speed, and rhythm of a person's writing and gait analysis technologies that recognize you by the way you walk, fall into the realm of biometrics (Waters, 2009).
“The software and hardware that make up these systems comprise three basic components: a sensor, a computer, and a hunk of software. The sensor detects the physiological characteristic presented; the computer that the scanner is connected to accepts that input as it would a pass code typed into a keypad or the swipe of a bar code; and the software analyzes that input against a stored piece of computer code that serves as a template, which was created from an initial scan of that same trait when the user "enrolled" in the system, then verifies the identity of the person on the other end of the appendage. The sensor makes few mistakes, wrongly rejecting only about one person in 1,000” (Waters, 2009).
Advantages and Disadvantages:
The advantage that Biometrics presents is that the information is unique for each individual and that it can identify the individual in spite of variations in the time (it does not matter if the first biometric sample was taken year ago). The pillars of e-learning security are: authentication, privacy (data confidentiality) authorization (access control), data integrity and non-repudiation. Biometric is a technique that can...