Biometric systems: a look at the market.
According to the International Biometric Group (IBG), the total volume of the global biometric market grew from billion in 2007 to billion in 2010.
Many transnational corporations, such as Citigroup and McDonald's, are showing interest in biometric solutions today. Schengen countries have announced plans to introduce biometric visas. New technologies and means of biometric identification are still being actively implemented at airports around the world. Customers from among financiers, retailers, heads of educational institutions, law firms, and healthcare institutions have also appreciated the advantages of biometrics.
Traditional methods of personal identification based on passwords or physical media such as a pass, passport, driver's license, electronic key or card do not always meet modern security requirements. A password can be forgotten or intercepted, a physical media can be copied, lost or given to another person. In biometric identification systems, a person is verified based on the unique biometric characteristics of each individual.
Personal identification using biometric technologies is a promising and developing area. Biometric information is unique (even identical twins have different fingerprints), it cannot be forgotten or lost, and, in addition, the physical presence of its carrier, i.e. the person himself, is required to present such information. Therefore, the biometric component is increasingly used as an element of modern access control systems that put forward increased security requirements.
Fingerprint verification technology
The most popular biometric technology is dactyloscopy – identification by fingerprints.
The consulting company Acuity Market Intelligence in its study cites data showing that this technology is used by over 70% of companies in the global biometric market and in the foreseeable future (5-7 years) they will retain a dominant position. The second place is currently occupied by facial recognition technologies (13.7%), however, it is possible that in the future, iris recognition systems may gain a share of 18.8% from the current modest 7% by 2017.
The popularity of fingerprint identification is due to the optimal ratio of accuracy, reliability and speed of identification with the price of purchasing and operating a biometric system.
In systems of this type, the probability of a false admission or, as experts say, errors of the first kind (FAR), is 0.000000001%, and the time required to scan a fingerprint is a fraction of a second. The cost of high-quality optical fingerprint scanners is measured in several tens of dollars. It should be noted that there may be problems when using this technology. We are talking about the probability of a false refusal to pass (errors of the second kind — FRR). In many readers on the market, this parameter is still unacceptably high. Leading manufacturers are working on a solution to this problem; for example, today the market offers readers with the function of adjusting the FAR and FRR ranges.
Another drawback of fingerprint identification systems is the poor quality of the fingerprints themselves in 2-4% of people. For some, this is an innate property, while for others, it is a consequence of painstaking manual labor. For people with such fingerprint features, it is not possible to use the system unless it supports multi-factor identification. In this case, they can be provided with entry using a familiar smart card.
Competitors of fingerprint technology developers do not stand still. For example, not long ago, readers using finger capillaries appeared on the market. The pattern of these capillaries is also unique, and the cost of the equipment is quite comparable with fingerprint readers.
Biometrics on guard of the banking sector and retail
The areas of application of biometric systems can be divided into two main groups. The first group includes enterprises where confidentiality and security of information are of paramount importance and great value — banks, insurance and manufacturing companies. The main problem in ensuring the information security of company data is the fight against insiders.
The second group includes enterprises that need high-quality accounting of working hours and control of physical access to premises. As a rule, these are large retail chains, restaurants, hotels, factories. According to a study by the Russian analytical portal Biometrics.ru, in Russia, biometric systems of working hours are most popular in retail (23.0%) and the service sector (24.3%).
This is explained by the specifics of the remuneration of sales assistants, waiters and administrative staff. In almost all companies, they work on an hourly pay schedule. Large retail chains, where thousands of sales assistants are employed, can suffer serious financial losses if each employee is late by at least 15 minutes and finishes the shift 15 minutes early. If you convert a 30-minute delay into a monetary equivalent, using official salary statistics, it turns out that the total losses of a company with a staff of 1,000 people exceed 0,000 per year. That is why more and more Russian retailers are switching to biometric time tracking. Today, this list already includes convenience stores, fashion and shoe chains, and computer stores.
How do biometric systems work?
Biometric systems consist of equipment and specialized software. The equipment includes biometric terminals and fingerprint scanners that scan fingerprints, and the software processes this data, enters the information into a database and subsequently generates reports for HR department managers, IT directors and general managers. Today, the range of equipment and software allows you to choose the best option for a specific company: small, medium or large; with a large number of branches and without, with a hierarchical and linear structure.
One of the most important requirements for biometric system software is integration with other software products, such as 1C or corporate ERP systems. Of course, the reliability of integration with other software products must be certified by an official certificate, which confirms that the installation of the biometric system will be carried out correctly and will not lead to the failure of the enterprise's IT infrastructure.
To protect especially important information and premises, biometric systems can use multi-factor identification using the «fingerprint + password + smart card» system.
At the same time, it is impossible to steal a fingerprint from the biometric system database, because it only stores a digital model that cannot be restored.
Interesting numbers
According to NucleusResearch, a global ROI research and consulting company, implementing biometric time and attendance systems can save up to 00 per employee annually.
McDonald's, which implemented a biometric time and attendance system in Venezuela, was able to save more than 20% of its payroll.
Americans lost 9 million due to payment card passwords falling into the hands of third parties.
5 billion euros is the damage caused to Societe Generale by its manager Jerome Kerviel, who used his colleagues' passwords in his machinations.
90 million euros is the amount that Jagmeet Channa tried to steal from HSBC using stolen passwords.
According to a sociological study by Unisys, 68% of customers worldwide prefer that banks, payment systems, and government agencies use biometrics for identification instead of passwords and cards.