Biometric Password Security

Concerns about Identity theft through biometrics use have not been resolved. If a person's credit card number is stolen, for example, it can cause them great difficulty since this information can be used in situations where the security system requires only "single-factor" authentication; IE, just knowing the credit card number and its expiration date can sometimes be enough to use a stolen credit card successfully. "Two-factor" security solutions requires something you know plus something you have; for example, a debit card and a personal Identification Number(PIN) or a biometric. Some argue that if a person's biometric data is stolen it might allow someone else to access personal information or financial accounts, in which case the damage could be irreversible. But this argument ignores a key operational factor intrinsic to all biometrics-based security solutions; biometric solutions are based on matching, at the point of transaction, the information obtained by the scan of a "live" biometric sample to a prestored, static "match template" created when the user originally enrolled in the security system. Most of the commercially-available biometric systems address the issues of ensuring that the static enrollment sample has not been tampered with (IE, using hash codes and encryption), so the problem is effectively limited to cases where the scanned "live" biometric data is hacked. Even then, most competently-design solutions contain anti-hacking routines. For example, the scanned "live" image is virtually never the same from scan-to-scan owing to the inherent plasticity of biometrics; ironically, a "replay" attack using the stored biometric is easily detected because it is too perfect a match.

Sociological concerns

As technology advances, and time goes on, more and more private companies and public utilities will use biometrics for safe, accurate identification. However, these advances will raise many concerns throughout society, where many may not be educated on the methods. Here are some examples of concerns society has with biometrics:

Physical - Some believe this technology can cause physical harm to an individual using the methods, or that instruments used are unsanitary. For example, there are concerns that retina scanners might not always be clean.

Personal Information - There are concerns whether our personal information taken through biometric methods can be misused, tampered with, or sold, e.g. by criminals stealing, rearranging or copying the biometric data. Also, the data obtained using biometrics can be used in unauthorized ways without the individual's consent.