Descarga archivo PDF (20MB) - Biometría

Governments rely on biometrics to identify people, authenticate their identity in information systems,
to strengthen public security in airports and cities, and to restrict the access to secure places, both
physical (buildings) and virtual (information systems and applications).
Recognition systems that use biometric technologies recognize a person based on physical
characteristics (fingerprints, facial and hand characteristics, iris patterns) or behavioural characteristics
learned or acquired (voice, holographic signature and keyboard typing patterns)
The use of biometric techniques for individuals’ identification is supported on the use of devices that
contain their information and scanners-readers of it. These devices can be intelligent cards that store
biometric data in a Integrated Circuit Chip (ICC), in turn protected by public key technologies (used
by the authority that delivers the personal identification device to sign the ICC) and by asymmetric
key technologies (a PIN – Personal Identification Number), e.g., the access to information systems or
computing centres.
This device is a physical artefact (for example an identity card, an intelligent card) issued to an
individual by a competent authority that contains data stored that prove that individual’s identity
(for example a portrait photo, fingerprints, etc.) so that the identity of the holder of that document
can be compared against the information stored by other person (i.e., they have to be accessible for a
person to be read) or by an automated system (i.e., that can be accessed or compared electronically).
Authentication factors currently used are three, based on:
- Something that I know: the individual is authenticated by means of something that he or she knows:
a key, an identification number– PIN, a phrase or an answer to a security question.
- Something that I have: the person is authenticated using something that he or she has: a token, a
smart card, a digital certificate.
- Something that I am: the individual is authenticated based on an own characteristic, i.e., biometric
data.
The factors based on knowledge and ownership require that the individual that is going to be
identified by a system has to remember to carry the device. Instead, when biometric technologies are
applied, that data is in that individual and it is almost impossible to be falsified, i.e., be used by other
individual for identity impersonation. It is said that in the first two factors, the relationship between
the data and its verification is weak, what makes identity impersonation easier, as the system cannot
distinguish between the legitimate possessor of the device and someone who had stolen it; the same
applies for a key.
The main function of applied biometrics is referred to the identification of individuals, both in the
real and the virtual environment.
Electronic Identity Document
The identification of persons who are born in their territory is one of the State’s basic functions in
some countries, what in general is responsibility of the Civil Registry. In our region, governments have
introduced a state modernization process which considers the possibility of incorporating ICTs to
accomplish such identification function.
But apart from fulfilling this individuals’ identification function, the use of biometrics in national
electronic documents brings about the deployment of additional functionalities. In this context,
the use of biometrics for this purpose will enable the creation of a unified database with individuals’
identification information. The availability of this information will make the accomplishment of other
506