Biometric Authentication: False Acceptance, False Rejection, and CER

Summary

An explainer on physiological and behavioral biometrics, the trade-off between False Acceptance Rate and False Rejection Rate, and how the Crossover Error Rate compares systems. It also notes privacy, usability, and cost considerations.

Key points

• Physiological methods include fingerprints, iris or retina scans, facial structure, and hand geometry; behavioral methods include signatures, keystrokes, and voice.
• Behavioral traits can vary over time, while biometric matching is probabilistic rather than an exact match.
• Threshold settings trade off False Acceptance Rate (FAR) against False Rejection Rate (FRR).
• The article describes FAR as a security risk and FRR as primarily a usability issue.
• Crossover Error Rate (CER) is the point where FAR and FRR are equal and is presented as a way to compare biometric systems.
• The article also notes privacy concerns, processing speed, and cost as considerations for biometric adoption.