Essential Qualities and Features of A Biometric Identity Management System

Identity is perhaps the most crucial element in almost all modern computer security mechanisms. We are presently living in a world where using only usernames and passwords for security is hardly enough and there is a crying need for better and more secured authentication mechanisms. This demand has led to the concept of multifactor biometric authentication that uses unique physical features of the users like their fingerprints, iris and retina or voice pattern for identifying them. When it comes to identity protection and management – biometric is considered by many as the holy grail of authentication, for it is based upon the behavioral or physical characteristics of individual persons.

It is important to understand that the primary goal of a biometric identity management system is to ensure that only authorized and authenticated persons gain access to certain network resources and any good system must be able to automate this process as much as possible and at the same time must also allow self service by the users. It is a world where there is no standard size that will fit all requirements and that is the reason you need to find the right system that will flawlessly serve to the exact requirements of your organization. Here are the factors that you need to consider in a biometric identification system:

• Scope –whether the system is capable of managing identity for a single organization or it can work across a large federation.
• Features and granular controls
• Easy deployment
• Scalability
• Cost of deployment

An identity management system of this type is completely dependent upon the software running it for efficiency and before investing in an identity management software product you must be able to define your exact requirements. You should also keep in mind that currently both proprietary and open source identity management systems are available and the system that has more features is also all the more difficult to deploy and administer. That is why apart from the system itself one also requires a trained and skilled specialist for deploying and administering the systems.

Some of the standard features you will find to come with most standard biometric identity verification systems are:

• User account provisioning, deprovisioning and management
• Synchronization of various attributes and passwords
• Enterprise single sign on
• Access management
• Federation
• Role based and policy based provisional management
• Data leak prevention integration
• Reporting

All major biometric identity management systems come with a centralized repository for identity information storage and many of them also include wizards for simplification of the management process. In work places having a heterogeneous environment, an identity management software product that is compatible with different types of databases, directories, applications and operating systems is obviously the better choice and you should also be considering the different types of authentications that are supported by the system. A lot more information on these systems can be easily found online and you can visit http://www.crossmatch.com/ to learn more.

About The Author

Benson Hedge is a pioneer in the field of biometric authentication and runs his own organization manufacturing security systems relating to this technology. He also likes to spread awareness about the many aspects related to the industry through the many informative articles he writes.

Crossmatch provides a variety of identity management solutions such as fingerprint biometric hardware, strong authentication software and developer tools.