I527-290 ESRIF Final Report (WEB).indd - European Commission

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In parallel, with the development of eID cards, the concept of an electronic signature (eSignature) is also emerging. An eSignature
can be defi ned as any legally recognized electronic means that indicates that a person adopts the contents of an electronic
message. It is another strong pillar of a trustworthy information society. However, the variety of means by which eSignature
can be implemented make its generalization complicated. A European directive, published in 1999, could be used as a starting
point to develop new eSignature standards in order to address the crucial cross-border interoperability challenges.
Trust in Internet payments
A large number of credit cards holders claim misuse via ID theft of other means through their credit card. There have been
improvements in security in this area with some measures being standardised – for example the use of smart cards and card
Pins or password protection. However, these do not prevent the use of cards by unauthorised persons if the user is not very
careful with the way s/he types-in the code. The integration of biometrics to grant access to the card information is a solution.
Besides, linking the user’s credit card and mobile phone may add signifi cant trust.
A key challenge is to provide a next generation payment mechanism, available on internet (but also in any mall or shopping
area), based on a PIN code, a signature or a digit sequence, but with strong authentication of the user’s identity to ensure trust
and security.
8.2.1.2 Trust in biometric systems
What you are vs. what you have
Given the demand for strong identity assurance, biometric technologies have a unique potential, by off ering the “gold
standard” of true three-factor authentication. The fi rst two factors, “something you know” and “something you have”, can
be satisfi ed by traditional username / password / token means – but only biometrics can off er the fi nal third factor of
“something you are”. This provides a level of control in identity management that has never been reached before by any
other technology and therefore, the trust in the identity management systems is dramatically increased both for the users
and the authorities. However, we will see that there are areas that remain to be improved if we are to avoid undermining
the strength of biometric systems.
Biometric data protection is key to trust
Biometric data protection, acquired by enhancing a system’s robustness, is a most crucial requirement for a system to be
trusted. There are mainly two classes of attacks, by which an attacker can breach the security of a biometric system or fool the
system to gain access to the biometric data of a legitimate user:
External attacks: the attacker tries to fool the acquisition device by showing a fake image (like a copy of a fi ngerprint of a
legitimate user). Such attacks can be prevented with appropriate anti spoofi ng mechanisms.
Internal attacks: the attacker is able to retrieve the template of a genuine user that has already enrolled onto the system.
This can be done by spoofi ng the system while the legitimate user uses the system or by hacking the database where
the biometrics are stored or simply by access not being adequately protected or restricted. The attacker then injects the
template directly into the matching algorithm. This solution is more complex to implement as the attacker needs to interfere
with components within the system perimeter.
Due to such threats, biometric data of citizens must be protected to a high level. This issue is addressed by the Personal
Data Protection legislation but further measures or standards for secure deployment are required. A strict application of the
Directive is very important since stealing or spoofi ng of biometric user characteristics, may lead to a “permanent” fake identity
ownership or identity theft. We need improved security to protect the biometric data used in our systems. Some people are
considering user behaviour as a kind of biometric identifi cation.
The building of user profi les deduced from user behaviour in his/her interaction with an application may provide meaningful
information to detect abnormal user operations and thus, potential identity theft. It is a major challenge in the mid-term to
build and evaluate appropriate counter-measures.
Research should focus on evaluating performance and robustness of counter-measures related to internal and external attacks
and, if required, as well on profi ling
ESRIF FINAL REPORT - PART 2 • Working Group: Identifi cation of People and Assets