Biometrics, authentication based on human unique human traits such as your retina, fingerprints or voice. They can be divided into two main classes: physiological ( shapes of the body) and behavioral ( such as keystroke dynamics and voice). Most forms of biometric authentication are seen through a sensor, processed, compared in a database and access denied or allowed base off of that conclusion. They were to be the replacement for passwords, however, most of the biometric systems can be broken or duped leaving some corporations to use both for now. Disadvantages of Biometrics: The finger print of those people working in Chemical industries can cause workers to be falsely denied access. Also it can be duped with a lifted finger print off of glass for example. Voice verification: a person's voice changes over time or with sickness the voice may not be able to be correctly identified. Certain body parts used in biometric scans change or deteriorate with age. Like anything technological can be duped. Advantages: Relatively inexpensive now for widespread use and adoption. Costs saved in tech support such as less lost passwords. Everyone has unique qualities. The accuracy of biometrics has never been 100% dye to variations in their environmental conditions and differences/conditions of the biometric sensors. Also with the changing of bodily changes, a threshold for biometric “matching” has to be established and nor will ever be 100% error free. The most accuracy comes from DNA as a biometric identifier, however, iris authentication is more practical. The least accurate would be face recognition with a false acceptance rate of one in one hundred.2 Privacy advocates are concerned with facial recognition at airports because for example, people who are activists against unpopular government actions could lose their freedoms. These advocates are becoming more and more vocal about the unguided and unlimited uses of biometric technologies after 9-11. Mostly unknown is the fact that facial recognition is more threatening because it can be deployed secretly and be totally invisible to the public. The accurateness of these systems and deployed tests have not been overly promising. At a super bowl game in Tampa, 2001, a hundred thousand people attended a game. Nineteen of which had criminal convictions, however, none of them had been wanted. Other tests conducted by various institutions such as L A's LAPD have shown that innocent people can be wrongly identified as criminals and criminals can sometimes not be even detected. Conclusively, biometric authentication is a new developing alternative to current methods. It is not quite ready for security sensitive applications at the moment while being used alone. More development needs to be done and further accuracy needs to be improved. Most importantly, the governing and regulation of such systems should be thought about at the national interest level, while maintaining freedom of rights and privacy. http://www.allpctips.com/technology/biometrics.htm 2. http://www.jrc.cec.eu.int/download/press/20050330_biometrics_fact_sheet.pdf