Security in Computing 5th Edition by Shari Lawrence Pfleeger, Charles P Pfleeger, Jonathan Margulies

Exercise 10

In a typical office, biometric authentication might be used to control access to employees and registered visitors only. We know the system will have some false negatives, some employees falsely denied access, so we need a human override, someone who can examine the employee and allow access in spite of the failed authentication. Thus, we need a human guard at the door to handle problems, as well as the authentication device; without biometrics we would have had just the guard. Consequently, we have the same number of personnel with or without biometrics, plus we have the added cost to acquire and maintain the biometrics system. Explain the security advantage in this situation that justifies the extra expense.

Step 1 of 2

Security with biometric and guard

With just the guard to authenticate the user, the system is more prone to human error. The guard has to be present all time at the point of authentication. Situations may arise like the guard may misinterpret someone’s identity or might go off to sleep, or may not be present at the authenticating point. At these situations an unauthenticated user can gain access to the system. For the areas with critical process or which store critical data, these kinds of risks are unacceptable.

The biometrics system uses the human body feature (like fingerprint, retina, iris, palm impression) to authenticate a user. These features are unique and are present in all humans. This authentication system is more secure as the authenticating feature is present with him all the time and it cannot be forged, theft, or cannot lend to other user. With this system the security becomes more robust; and thus eliminates the human error.