Biometric Security

Biometric safes are similar to traditional security safes; however, scanning biometric data to provide or prevent access to the biometric safe controls the locking mechanism.  Many biometric safes solely use biometric scanners to provide access to authorized users; while other biometric safes muse a combination locking method which might be a key, access card, PIN code or other authentication method to provide for additional security.  Biometric safes have many positive attributes that make them an excellent solution for those looking for quick easy access to their valuables, documents, or other sensitive materials.

Biometric technology uses human characteristics as identification markers to authenticate users.  The most common biometric scan found in Biometric safes is that of a fingerprint.  Beyond safes, biometric scanners also read other identification markers including hand geometry, retinal patterns, voice and speech patterns.  Biometric safes that use fingerprints are the most common method in safes as they are easy to use and provide advanced security.  As mentioned before, a biometric safe may also require multiple forms of biometric or non-biometric information for added security.

Biometric safes are programmed fairly easily which makes them a popular choice when seeking a security safe.  Most safes have a sophisticated scanner, which identifies a master administrator who can program additional users with ease.  Most biometric safes have the ability for the administrator to easily add or delete users who can access the safe, yet not provide them with access to reprogram the safe.

For a simple biometric safe, users are allowed access to the contents with the single swipe of a fingerprint. For multi combination safes, once the user has been authenticated they may also require a PIN security code, combination, or a key for enhanced protection.  

When used in commercial applications, more sophisticated safes may also come with panic features for a user to access in the event they are forced to open the safe against their own will.

Many biometric safes offer some level of water and fire resistance.  The housing materials will help protect content in the event of a fire, flood, or earthquake.  If you’re looking for a biometric safe with fire and climate change protection, be sure to look for a safe with a UL rating that specifies how long the safe will protect its contents in the event of a flood, fire, or strong impact.

Password use is widely accepted method for protection of informational and other resources: in computer networks, cash dispensers, telephone cards, etc. However, passwords can be forgotten, stolen or broken. In this relation, biometric identification is more reliable, since fingerprint or eye can not disappear so easily. There are also examples for combination of biometrical and password protection, either to protect scanning areas or to generate random passwords. Impementation of biometric password generation creates range of advantages for everyday use.

The point of password use is to create universal and easy to install system; the point of biometric use is to create highly secure system.

Biometric market now worth $3.4 billion with annual growth of 29.1% ; this predominantly include finger scan technology (59%), facial and iris scanning (13%), keystroke (0.4%) and signature scans (2.7%). Proposed invention targets end-users, small, medium-size companies and widespread information systems which need:
- Convenient, cost effective and secure solution for personal passwords storage, i.e. – Flexibility in installation of access control devices: i.e. biometric scanners and password generators in university labs and libraries or subscription services of internet media.

Since security concerns in the modern world are constantly growing, biometric password generation is capable to gain at least 3% of total biometric market.

Advantages of biometric password management

- Passwords are unique because of uniqueness of biometric characteristics. – Passwords are permanent, because they use certain mathematical algorithm (coding table) for coding. Other methods on the market generate just random passwords, useless for most applications. – Passwords do not require storage or additional processing (i.e. comparison of a fingerprint with etalon in a database). – Passwords use is flexible and can be invented in numerous applications: from personal password generators to access control systems. – Passwords are secure because user can select any coding table or coordinate grid to generate password; this selection, however, is easy to remember.
One of the major assumptions is that password protection will remain the most popular security measure. Anyway, to answer whether existing or new technologies will impact our invention, we need to discuss its areas of aplication and how it’s supposed to be realized.
Application
2. Technology
Application of our invention is simple and straigntforvard: to generate paswords and ensure their security. Necessity of password generations is apparent for anyone using more than one password, either for banking, mail or administration. To store password is obviously insecure, whether in notepad or bulletproof safe. Presented invention claims to offer such technology using fingerprints.
2. Nevertheless, with technology development, new advances appear on the market and bring fortune to their inventors. The recent example is a group of Russian students, who offered device for face recognition and attracted few million investment from Japan venture fund.

To generate password (http://merqum.com) , biometric identifier should be permanent, distinctive and have high performance; for ease of use it must be universal and collectable. Fingerprint technology is also a market leader in biometric technologies and we present some comments below why ones are better than others. • DNA: DeoxyriboNucleic Acid (DNA) is the one-dimensional ultimate unique code for one’s individuality, except for the fact that identical twins have identical DNA patterns. However, there are some tradeoffs in its use. • Facial, hand, and hand vein infrared thermograms: The pattern of heat radiated by the human body is a characteristic of each individual body and can be captured by an infrared camera in an unobtrusive way much like a regular (visible spectrum) photo- photograph. The technology could be used for covert recognition and could distinguish between identical twins. A thermogram-based system is non-contact and non-invasive but sensing challenges in uncontrolled environments, where heat-emanating surf1aces in the vicinity of the body, such as, room heaters and vehicle exhaust pipes, may drastically affect the image acquisition phase. Infrared sensors are prohibitively expensive which is a factor inhibiting widespread use of the thermograms. • Gait: Gait is the peculiar way one walks and is a complex spatio-temporal biometric. • Hand and finger geometry: Some features related to a human hand (e.g., length of fingers) are relatively invariant and peculiar (although not very distinctive) to an individual. The representational requirements of the hand are very small (nine bytes in one of the commercially available products), which is an attractive feature for bandwidth- and memory-limited systems. • Iris: Visual texture of the human iris is determined by the chaotic morphogenetic processes during embryonic development and is posited to be distinctive for each person and each eye (Daugman, 1999a). Iris identification technology is a tremendously accurate biometrics. Ease of use and system integration has not traditionally been strong points with iris scanning devices, but people can expect improvements in these areas as new products emerge.

• Retinal scan: The retinal vasculature is rich in structure and is supposed to be a characteristic of each individual and each eye. It is claimed to be the most secure biometric since it is not easy to change or replicate the retinal vasculature The image acquisition involves cooperation of the subject, entails contact with the eyepiece, and requires a conscious effort on the part of the user. All these factors adversely affect public acceptability of retinal biometrics. Retinal vasculature can reveal some medical conditions (e.g., hypertension), which is another factor standing in the way of public acceptance of retinal scan-based biometrics. • Voice: Voice capture is unobtrusive and voice print is an acceptable biometric in almost all societies. Voice may be the only feasible biometric in applications requiring person recognition over a telephone. Voice is not expected to be sufficiently distinctive to permit identification of an individual from a large database of identities. Moreover, a voice signal available for recognition is typically degraded in quality by the microphone, communication channel, and digitizer characteristics. Voice is also affected by a person’s health (e.g., cold), stress, emotions, and so on. Besides, some people seem to be extraordinarily skilled in mimicking others. • Finger-scan biometrics is based on the distinctive characteristics of a human fingerprint. It is not surprising that the workstation access application area seems to be based almost exclusively on fingerprints, due to the relatively low cost, small size and ease of integration of fingerprint authentication devices.

As it’s clear from the above review, biometric techniques are different in applicability, use of use, acceptability, etc. It’s unlikely that advantages in some technique will change market share of others, especially of the most popular ones, like fingerprint or face recognition. Any successful combination of biometric techniques, however, is capable to create own market niche.

The market.
Biometric market now worth $3.4 billion with annual growth of 29.1% ; this predominantly include finger scan technology (59%), facial and iris scanning (13%), keystroke (0.4%) and signature scans (2.7%). pocket USB-password generators;
- Flexibility in installation of access control devices: i.e. biometric scanners and password generators in university labs and libraries or subscription services of internet media. Since security concerns in the modern world are constantly growing, biometric password generation is capable to gain at least 3% of total biometric market.Additional details are available at http://merqum.com

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