ITPEC IP October 2020 Question 42

Authentication by the shape of the veins in a finger — biometric authentication identifies a person by a physical or behavioural characteristic of the body.

Authentication factors are of three kinds: something you know (password, PIN), something you have (IC card, token, a certificate stored on a device) and something you are (biometrics). Vein authentication reads the pattern of veins under the skin with near-infrared light and compares it with the template registered in advance; the pattern differs from person to person and is hard to copy because it lies inside the body. Fingerprint, face, iris, voice and handwritten signature are other biometric examples.

Answer (a)

Why not others:

• •(b) — a digital certificate, issued by a certificate authority, proves who holds a private key; it is something you have, not a characteristic of the body
• •(c) — reading distorted text in an image is CAPTCHA, which tells a human from an automated program; it does not identify which person is there
• •(d) — a one-time password is a code valid for one login, produced by a token or sent to a phone: something you have, not something you are

Key rule: Biometrics is "something you are"; it cannot be forgotten or lent, and combined with something you know or have it gives multi-factor authentication.

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