Welcome to the third instalment of our blogposts about the terms we use in our tests and the ones you may come across when dealing with biometry. Our aim is to make these words, terms and abbreviations understandable and defined in layman
Welcome to the third instalment of our blogposts about the terms we use in our tests and the ones you may come across when dealing with biometry. Our aim is to make these words, terms and abbreviations understandable and defined in layman's terms, based on the respective standards. This chapter deals with an assortment of terms that you may encounter when dealing with biometry
Hacking in the biometry context is an attack type that is directed against the IT solutions behind a biometric identification systems and done on anything within the system that is not the sensor itself. This means communication (man in the middle attacks), attacks against the database or the control software, opening a backdoor towards the device, etc.
Spoofing in the biometry context is an attack type that is directed against the sensor employed by a particular device. This means that the attacker tries to assume the identity of a legitimate user that is enrolled within the system and is authorised to use it by obtaining and reproducing the required biometric sample from that person then gaining access with said reproduced samples.
The user cooperation shows how much the user has to interact with a particular device to perform identification. If no user cooperation is required, then the device may identify the user without him or her even noticing it. A number of face and iris detection systems can perform this kind of identification. The required user cooperation rises along with the degrees of freedom a device allows, as it will require more and more precise positioning to be able to identify the user.
The degrees and restrictions of freedom show how many ways a user can position the particular sample. It can range from 0 (e.g. with a hand geometry identification device, that allows neither free movement nor free displacement of the sample) to 6 (e.g. with an iris identification device, where all three dimensions are available to turn the sample and all directions to displace it). Degrees of freedom can be reduced by position helping surfaces and device design.
A biometric feature is the part of the body that can be used for identification. The most commonly used features are fi