Weaponized Biometrics? Revocable Biometrics

Biometrics: Revocable & Weaponized

Thursday 3F Convener: Francisco Corella, Karen Lewison, Jason Law

Notes-taker(s): Francisco Corella

Tags for the session - technology discussed/ideas considered:

Discussion notes, key understandings, outstanding questions, observations, and, if appropriate to this discussion: action items, next steps:

The purpose of the session was to provide information about revocable biometrics.

In traditional biometrics a biometric code is obtained by extracting features from a biometric sample, and is matched against a biometric template. But an adversary who captures the template can construct a sample that will match the template, and use the sample to authenticate the user. The user cannot recover from such a compromise, because a traditional biometric credential is not revocable. By contrast, in revocable biometrics, authentication is accomplished using a randomized biometric key derived from a biometric code and helper data. The key is revocable because it is randomized, and the helper data reveals no useful biometric information.

Revocable biometrics have been studied in academia for many years, but are not widely known or used for a variety of reasons, which were discussed during the session. More details can be found here: https://pomcor.com/documents/RevocableBiometrics.pdf