Use Of Biometric Security

Biometrics is an essential part of the IT security certification course and is used for identification purpose and also for verification.Both of these can be illustrated as:

• Identification: Identification is determining who a person is.It involves trying to find a match for a person's biometric data in a database containing records of people and that characteristic.This method requires time and a large amount of processing power,especially if the database is very large.

• Verification: Verification is determining if a person is who they say they are.It involves comparing a users biometric data to the previously recorded data for that person to ensure that this is the same person.This method requires less processing power and time,and is used for access control(to buildings or data).

Smart Card

A smart card,chip card or integrated circuit card(ICC) is a pocket sized plastic card with embedded integrated circuits.A hologram may be embedded in the card to prevent counterfeiting.Smart cards may also provide strong security authentication for single sign on within large organisations or mid sized firms.Smart cards can be used for authentication,identification,data storage and application processing.

Some of the most common smart card applications are:

• Credit/Debit cards
• Computer security systems
• Electronic cash
• Wireless communication
• Banking
• Satellite TV
• Government identification