Securing web services with biometrics

Abstract

Web services are evolving and gaining wide acceptance as a standard for distributed computing. Organisations are starting to rely on them to conduct their core business, thereby enabling access to a huge amount of sensitive personal, medical and financial information that they hold, as well as information held on behalf of their customers, such as governments. Clearly, security for such web services is critical. Biometrics can play an important role in web services in a number of ways, providing improved levels of security and convenience for end-users. Emerging XML-based standards for carrying biometric information and exploiting cryptographic techniques may act as an enabler for biometrics. There has been considerable excitement in the world of information technology about web services. Indeed, they are seen as the next major revolution hitting the internet, enabling applications and organisations to interact with one another more directly and efficiently. However, security for web services is seen as a major challenge to be overcome before widespread deployment is possible. At the same time, biometric technologies continue to advance, with growing impetus behind the establishment of common standards for distributed biometric systems. This article explores web services and biometrics and examines the potential for the technologies to be of mutual benefit to each other.