Lend me your ears

NETWORK WORLD NEWSLETTER: M. E. KABAY ON SECURITY
08/09/05
Today's focus: Lend me your ears

Dear security.world@gmail.com,

In this issue:

* Methods for authentication
* Links related to Security
* Featured reader resource
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This newsletter is sponsored by SafeNet
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GARTNER'S SECURITY HYPE-O-METER

What is hype and has it influenced your network security
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_______________________________________________________________

Today's focus: Lend me your ears

By M. E. Kabay

When screening large numbers of people, linking identification
to real-world identity (that is, authentication) is a tough
problem. As readers probably know, there are four basic methods
for authentication:

* What you know that others don't (e.g., passwords).
  * What you have that others don't (e.g., tokens such as keys or
   smart cards).
  * What you do that others can't (e.g., the way you sign your
   name or the phrase on a keyboard).
  * What you are that others aren't (e.g., your fingerprints,
   retinal patterns, iris characteristics, or face).

Passwords don't work very well for crowds. Tokens are used all
the time - consider airline tickets and passports - but in
today's digital scanning and printing world, they are easy to
counterfeit (I'll be looking at new mechanisms for safeguarding
passports in another article).

A report last year by Jonathan Krim of the Washington Post
pointed out that facial recognition systems using photographs
can have serious problems: "... [F]ederal researchers who have
tested face-recognition technology say its error rate is
unacceptably high - up to 50% if photographs are taken without
proper lighting." <http://www.networkworld.com/nlsec4671> An
American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) report revealed that in
face recognition trials at the Palm Beach Airport in 2002,
"...the system failed to match volunteer employees who had been
entered into the database fully 503 out of 958 times, or 53% of
the time."
<http://www.aclu.org/Privacy/Privacy.cfm?ID=10340&c=130>

Unlike fingerprint and retinal scans, both facial and ear
recognition can be relatively non-intrusive, requiring little
interference with or involvement by the subject (no physical
contact or unusual procedures such as staring into a lens).

Iris recognition is another biometric technology that has
required some cooperation by the subject; however, there have
been reports that new technology should permit iris recognition
at a distance. Tabassum Zakaria, reporting for the Australian
Broadcasting Corporation in 2003
<http://abc.net.au/science/news/stories/s982770.htm> quoted U.S.
CIA officials as working on new biometric systems with a
ten-fold improvement in recognition rates.

A July 14, 2005 report by Duncan Graham-Rowe explains that
University of Southampton (U.K.) biometrics researcher Mark
Nixon is finding that ears may provide excellent features for
biometric identification systems
<http://www.newscientist.com/channel/mech-tech/dn7672>. Nixon
points out that ears are relatively stable compared with other
facial features and do not change with people's expressions. His
initial trials used pictures of 63 people and found 99.2%
accuracy - an error rate much lower than for facial recognition
systems.

So unfortunately for us in the snow belt, ear muffs may
eventually be seen as threats to security.

The top 5: Today's most-read stories

1. Questions dog Cisco routers
<http://www.networkworld.com/nlsec4672>

2. First family of Windows Vista viruses unleashed
<http://www.networkworld.com/nlsecuritynewsal4592>

3. Anti-spyware firm warns of massive ID theft ring
<http://www.networkworld.com/news/2005/080505-id-theft.html?t5>

4. Crashing the 'Net
<http://www.networkworld.com/columnists/2005/080805buzz.html?t5>

5. Cisco vulnerability posted to Internet
<http://www.networkworld.com/nlsec4417nlsecuritynewsal4489>
_______________________________________________________________
To contact: M. E. Kabay

M. E. Kabay, Ph.D., CISSP, is Associate Professor in the
Division of Business and Management at Norwich University in
Northfield, Vt. Mich can be reached by e-mail
<mailto:mkabay@norwich.edu> and his Web site
<http://www2.norwich.edu/mkabay/index.htm>.

New information assurance journal - Norwich University Journal
of Information Assurance (NUJIA). See
<http://nujia.norwich.edu/>
_______________________________________________________________
This newsletter is sponsored by HP ProCurve
Network World Executive Guide: Getting Wireless Right
Wireless LANs move beyond data to voice and video

The WAN alphabet is constantly growing, as standards setting
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