U članku “Top 10 disappointing technologies” izložen je vrlo zanimljiv osvrt na biometriju kao tehnologiju. Naime, godinama, praktično gotovo cijelo jedno desetljeće, povremeno se pojavljuje biometrijska tehnologija kao dio korisničkih sučelja. Poslovna linija prijenosnih računala ima čitače za otiske prstiju, kao i neka palmtop računala. Većina nas koji se krećemo u krugu korporativnih klijenata vidjeli smo čitače biometrijskih značajki na ulazima u osjetljive prostorije (otisak prsta, zjenica), a voditelji informacijskih sustava često bi potiho rekli da je to bila promaÅ¡ena investicija i da nisu u upotrebi nego se koriste obične swipe kartice. S druge strane, tvrtke koje pokuÅ¡avaju prodati biometrijska rjeÅ¡enja Å¡irem krugu korisnika oglaÅ¡avaju svoje proizvode kao vrlo funkcionalne i kao zadnju riječ tehnike u informacijskoj sigurnosti – neÅ¡to Å¡to pruža neporecivu jedinstvenu identifikaciju pristupa.

Gdje točno leži istina?

Honourable mention: Biometrics

“Iain Thomson: Biometrics was supposed to be the magic bullet that solved all our security needs. Look in any film where they are trying to be futuristic or high tech and you’ll see people getting their body scanned as a security measure.

However, the reality has proved less than we were promised. Fingerprint readers are in wide circulation but they are easily fooled these days with cheap materials, or by more direct means. Taiwanese robbers reportedly cut the finger of a man whose car had a fingerprint ignition, something that led scanner manufacturers to install a temperature sensor in future models to prevent a repeat.

Facial scanning was also touted as foolproof, and then quickly found to be anything but. Even DNA fingerprinting is now being questioned, either because the chemistry is defective or the lingering possibility that an individual’s DNA may not be unique. Hell, they still haven’t proved that fingerprints are even unique.

Maybe one day we’ll come up with the ultimate biometric solution but I have my doubts.

Shaun Nichols: One of the problems with biometrics is that people don’t really want it.

As much as we love movies about cyborgs and futuristic bio-scanning systems, few people are comfortable with actually allowing machines to analyse and classify us on that sort of level. While locks that require a palm or thumb print are emerging for high-security applications, the ‘big brother’ implications of taking the technology to the masses are too much for most of us.

As Iain mentioned, there are also some rather unpleasant ways to thwart such systems. Iain noted the finger incident in Taiwan, and anyone who bothered to sit through the film ‘Demolition Man’ remembers the, well, ‘creative’ way in which Wesley Snipes was able to get through the retinal scanning machine. If someone is determined to get into my place of work or residence, I’d rather they do so by picking the lock than by hacking off a body part.”