Introduction

Abstract

Biometrics and cryptography are two widely used techniques for providing information security. Biometrics is defined as automated recognition of individuals based on their behavioral and biological characteristics. In biometrics, biological or behavioral characteristics, such as, fingerprints, face, iris, signature, voice, gait, etc., are used to establish the identity of a person. These characteristics are strongly associated with the identity, and therefore, biometric recognition provides a strong link between the user’s identity and the authenticator. However, with widespread use of biometrics, many security and privacy concerns are being raised about biometrics. Since biometric characteristics are permanently associated with the person, in case of compromise, they cannot be replaced. This lack of revocability is a serious issue for a user authentication system. Moreover, biometric templates originating from the same biometric characteristic stored in different databases are similar.Therefore, biometrics lack diversity and two biometric databases can be cross-linked compromising privacy. Recovery of biometric data, and a possibility of revealing physical conditions from it, is another privacy issue with biometric systems.