Abstract
The need for a more secure cyber future is apparent in the information age
that we live in. Information is fast becoming, and already is, one of the biggest
assets in all domains of life. Access to information and specifically personal
information must be regulated and secured in a trusted way.
The use of passwords and tokens (example: bank card) that’s currently the
most popular and well known mechanism for electronic identification can only
identify the password or token but NOT the physical user using the password
or token for identification.
Biometrics addresses the above issue by being part of the physical user. For
example: your fingerprint, retina or iris. Current biometric technologies
provide an enabling medium to help with more accurate identification and
verification. Thereby protecting and securing electronic information…BUT:
One of the biggest problem areas surrounding biometrics is the fact that most
biometric tokens (fingerprints, hand geometry and the human eye) can be
used in some cases to identify the owner of the biometric token even after
death as if the owner was still alive. The problem becomes apparent in the
case of a person that passed away and the possibility of using the biometric
tokens of the deceased to obtain access to his/her bank account. Therefore
the importance of effective liveness testing is highlighted. Current liveness
testing technologies can not be trusted in a way that would be necessary to
provide the trust needed in the example of access to a personal bank account
at an ATM (automatic teller machine).
This dissertation reports on the initial stages of a research project that
addresses the above problem by proposing the use of biometric tokens that
doesn’t exist if the owner is not alive, thus the dissertation coins the new term
– Inherent Liveness Biometrics. The way the human heart beats as a
biometric token to identify or verify a person, might solve the issue of liveness
testing, because “The way the human heart beats” might prove to be a
natural biometric token that is only valid for a living person, thus an inherent
liveness biometric.
Prof. S.H. Von Solms