Encryption technologies are vital to protect biometric information from fraudulent use. The most attractive products and systems for corporates are therefore likely to be those that combine biometric identification with encryption to protect biometric data. Biometric techniques are improving greatly in accuracy and ease of use, while costs are falling. Biometric devices are normally used to verify a known individual. A dynamic template is compared against a stored reference version to see if a match exists.
Some systems continuously update the stored version following correct matches.
A balance needs to be set between false positives and false negatives. Too high a level of false positives jeopardises security, while too many false negatives will irritate users and add to support costs. Fingerprints have been used in law enforcement since the late 19th century, after British scientist and explorer Sir Francis Galton observed that they appeared to be unique to an individual. However, biometrics are not without inherent problems. They are useful because it is hard to fake a finger, forge a face or steal a voice, but for authentication the system must at some point scan the finger, face or voice, and this is the point at which hackers can strike.