Computer Physical Security - Essay Example

Biometric characteristics are exclusively individual; therefore making such characteristics a basis of user identification provides high reliability of protection. So we may define a biometric system as 'a pattern recognition system which recognizes a user by determining the authenticity of a specific physiological or behavioral characteristic possessed by the user'2. The tests made by the International Computer Security Association (ICSA) have allowed to issue certificates to rather limited number of systems of biometric identification.

It is necessary to notice that six products certificated by the ICSA have been selected as a result of the careful analysis from a plenty of models. In the manual 'Biometric Industry Product Guide' issued by the ICSA, there is a description of 170 systems, allowing to make identification of users on basis of their unique physical parameters. Many independent users, including representatives of the ICSA, appreciate certified systems at their true value. The majority of biometric systems operate in the following way: the digital mark of a fingerprint, an iris or a voice is stored in the system database.

A person, who is going to get access to a computer network, enters his/her own personal biometric information into the system by means of a microphone, a scanner of finger-prints or other devices. The received data are compared with the sample, which is kept in the database. Let us consider the mostly used biometric systems of computes access control. FINGERPRINT RECOGNITION Recently the dactyloscopy has attracted the attention as a biometric parameter, which quite possibly will become the most popular in the future.

Already now the application of this technology has received wide circulation in Automated Fingerprint Identification System (AFIS) used by police throughout all territory of the USA and more than in other 30 countries of the world. In the USA devices of access control based on fingerprint identification are established in military institution, including the Pentagon. Among the advantages of fingerprint scanners are simplicity, usability and reliability. Though the percent of erroneous negative identification is about 3 %, a mistake of positive access is less than one to one million.

All process of identification lasts no more than several seconds and does not demand any efforts from those, who use the given system of access. Nowadays such systems are made in the size of less than a pack of cards. The certain disadvantage constraining the development of the given method is the bias of a part of people, which do not wish to make the information on their fingerprints available. Thus the counterargument of developers of such equipment is the assurance that the information about papillate pattern of a finger is not stored.

What is stored is only short identification code constructed on the basis of prominent features of your finger-print. HAND GEOMETRY RECOGNITION The method of identification of users by hand geometry by it's the technological structure and the level of reliability is quite comparable to the method of ident