Examining the Safety of Biometrics
Primary Investigator:
Research Independant
Kat Haggenmueller haggenk@rose-hulman.edu; Advisor Dr. Sid Stamm stammsl@rose-hulman.edu
Abstract
In the digital age, it is important to guarantee the safety of users’ personal information and to guarantee that no unauthorized people will get access to private data. For the longest time, this was done by using passwords. However, due to numerous risks accompanying the use of passwords, new authentication methods are constantly being developed and improved upon. The most popular of these alternative methods is biometric authentication.
While there seem to be many advantages of biometric authentication over passwords, a big concern is that people are underestimating the risks that biometrics pose. there is reason to believe that several risks come with using biometric authentication, which could lead to devastating consequences if they were taken advantage of.
The goal of this thesis is to investigate how safe biometric authentication methods are and whether they are safer than traditional passwords.