Methods of Identification & Authentication

Identification and authentication is the process of verifying the identity of a person, piece of equipment, vehicle, or other asset. The identification process assumes that there was an initial validation of the identity, commonly called identity template.

The only requirement for identification is that it is unique within its domain - in an organisation your identifier doesn't need to be unique in the world, only unique within your company or branch. Authenticators are commonly based on at least one of the following four factors:

• Something you know, such as a password or a personal identification number (PIN). This assumes that the person being identified remembers the password or PIN needed, and does not share it with others.
• Something you have, such as an RFID card or security token. This assumes that only the person being identified has the right card or token with him.
• Something you are: recognition via a biometric characteristic such as a fingerprint, hand, face or iris.

Biometric Identification & Authentication

Biometrics is the automated method of recognizing a person based on a physiological or behavioural characteristic. Biometric technologies are becoming the foundation of an extensive array of highly secure identification and personal verification solutions. Biometric technologies should be considered and evaluated giving full consideration to the following characteristics:

Universal
Every person must have the characteristic. Faces and DNA are universal, while hands, voice, fingers and eyes are slightly less so. A person can lose their voice or injure an eye, finger or hand.

Unique
Generally, no two people have identical characteristics. However, some features are so similar within a population that perfect recognition is more difficult and therefore both enrolment and recognition take longer. Identical twins cannot be distinguished using DNA, and DNA can cause some problems after medical procedures involving blood transfusion or organ replacement.

Permanent
The characteristic should not vary with time. A person's face or eyes may change with age. A fingerprint can be obscured with scars or dirt.

Collectible
The characteristic must be easily collectible and measurable. DNA is considered the most difficult to collect, while hand geometry is consider one of the easiest.

Performance
The method must deliver accurate results under varied environmental circumstances. Facial recognition requires better lighting than most other methods, while iris and fingerprint recognition needs better quality cameras to be accurate. Voice recognition requires a quiet environment.

Acceptable
Employees must accept the sample collection routines. Non-intrusive methods are more acceptable.

Trustworthy
To be an effective identification and verification system, the technology must be difficult to deceive. DNA is almost impossible to deceive, while faces, hands or fingerprint recognition can be deceived with prosthetics. Therefore the system you choose must be capable if recognising and rejecting a prosthetic or photograph.

How does it work?

Biometric authentication requires comparing a stored (enrolled) biometric template against the real biometric sample as the employee or visitor "clocks in".

During Enrollment a sample of the biometric characteristic is captured, processed by a computer using an algorithm, and the key data points are stored for later comparison. Please note that the scanned image is rarely stored, only the data points/measurements identifying this particular individual are stored.

A basic biometric system is made up of:

1. a sensor (usually a terminal) to capture the biometric characteristic
2. a computer to process and eventually save the biometric data
3. software on the computer to store time transactions (log in, log out times)
4. an application that uses the time transactions e.g. payroll software that calculates time worked.