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Click Here - To Download Your Own Free Pharmaceutical Glossary. VALIDATION ONLINE NEWS LETTER. Biometrics and Computer Security.
Is biometrics the answer for computer log-on and or server room security? The subject has often been raised by clients, my take has always been, when they steal your password you have the option to change it, if they steal your biometrics !! So it was with interest I watched a (Discovery Channel) TV show attempting to fool an expensive biometric lock. The makers claimed the lock had never been beaten and that it was foolproof since it: a) Mapped your fingerprint pattern. b) Measure your skin temperature. c) Measured your skin resistance. d) Measured your pulse. That all looks pretty convincing, until you consider b, c & d, are variables. They vary all the time, so the lock can only be sensing if they are present, not what value they are. You could therefore be reasonably safe in assuming that any normal human finger is going to satisfy these requirements. After many complex efforts at transferring someone else’s fingerprint, they obtained a finger print, quite conventionally, from a glass sheet (could be window / door / machine part) enhanced it with the normal dusting powder, photographed it and printed out the photograph onto standard office paper. They then trimmed, neatly, around the finger pad area and glued this photocopy of the authorised persons finger print, onto their index finger pad. This is really low low tech stuff, but it opened the door every time. Now, would you like to be the person who had just convinced management to installed hundreds of expensive, high security biometric locks. Alexander Kennedy - Principle Engineer.
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