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Biometric security technologies
In just a few short years, the use of biometric technologies has become commonplace in civilian applications, after a long period of exclusive use in criminal contexts. Solutions based on biometric technology can provide an answer to arising needs in the field of financial and confidential transactions, as well as in privacy and personal data management.
Demand from national and local authorities for biometric solutions in defence and business applications is growing throughout the world. It is felt at security infrastructure level in business networks, in governance applications, in the protection of financial transactions in the banking sector, in retail, to comply with laws, for healthcare and for social services. These are all fields of application that benefit from the use of these technologies.

There are many different biometric recognition methods available, including face, iris and retina recognition, as well as various ways of recognising the hand and voice, to name but a few. But the most popular, simple and reliable technology at the present time is the technique with the longest history of proven effectiveness in criminal applications: digital fingerprint recognition.

Authentication based on digital fingerprint recognition technology can be applied to workstations, networks, access domains, single sign-on access solutions, applications access, data protection, access to remote resources, and transaction and web security.

Being able to trust electronic transactions is essential for healthy international economic growth. Used alone or in conjunction with other technologies, such as smart cards, cryptographic keys and electronic signatures, biometric applications look set to permeate almost all aspects of the economy and our daily lives. This growing diffusion means that there are now a multitude of hardware devices and software projects designed to authenticate individuals wishing to perform actions on a secure basis. Choosing which digital fingerprint biometric recognition system to adopt is therefore not easy. There are many different issues to consider, primarily in terms of the level of verification accuracy.

Of the many devices on sale, some of them very low cost solutions, not all can deliver high levels of security. The use of recognition hardware and algorithms that are derived from criminal applications is one way to guarantee superior performance. Fingerprints must be analysed across the entire available surface, which means that the size of the sensor is fundamental. The use of a limited area of fingerprints may be insufficient to guarantee a suitable level of recognition for our purposes.

Many people continue to regard biometric authentication as a form of control, associating it exclusively with the application of this technology to criminal investigations. However, we must learn that the use of our individual physical features guarantees us protection in a highly convenient form against possible attacks on our identities.

We must radically change the mechanisms we use to demonstrate our right to something, moving from a situation in which this is proved by something we "have" (a document, a credit card, etc.) or something that we "know" (a PIN, a password, etc.), possibly in combination, to something that we "are" (digital fingerprints, iris recognition, facial recognition, etc.).

When biometric information is recorded, the data measured is transformed into what is usually called an electronic "template", which cannot be used to reconstruct the original information contained in the digital fingerprint image. As this information is unique, we must do all we can to protect it when it is used, ensuring that it cannot be stolen and used improperly.

In Italy the Privacy Authority is now beginning to examine the question, but it is clear that one of the main tasks of designers of biometric authentication systems (and not just devices) is to ensure that the information cannot be reproduced, intercepted or used by anyone.

Elsag Datamat company Italdata realised some time ago that IT solutions based on biometric technology would become a strategic factor in the professional and consumer security sector. From an analysis of the first technologies introduced, Italdata also realised that there was a significant risk of "discrediting" the sector by endorsing solutions of dubious validity for the sole purpose of rapid business development. Careful analysis has shown how important it is to experiment, assess new materials, study the evolution of mathematical algorithms and analyse different operating environments to understand exactly which features are essential. Cooperation with Italian and international security forces continues to represent a major contribution to the development of our IT solutions. The professional skills needed to satisfy the requirements of this sector are the strategic resources on which Italdata draws in the development of its products.