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Integrating Enterprise Single Sign-on With Finger Biometrics To Strengthen Your Overall Security
By David Ting
These days, credit unions are realizing a growing awareness of the risks involved in protecting IT-based resources from identity theft, malicious outside attacks, or generally inappropriate use. They must also adhere to strict mandates -FFIEC, Sarbanes-Oxley, GLBA, and Basel II, etc. - from government and industry regulators that require financial services organizations to take significant steps to strengthen defenses against these misuses. As a result, many credit unions are deploying strong multi-factor authentication policies that are more secure than the basic password schemes that had been so commonplace in the past.

Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council (FFIEC) guidelines are drawing more attention to authentication technologies in the banking industry. These guidelines are spurring banks and credit unions to tighten up security across their organization, and implement strong authentication for both customer-facing applications and internal application access.


Strong authentication is the use of at least two factors to authenticate a user based on "what the user knows," "what the user has," and "who the user is." Implementations include the use of strong password schemes, ID tokens, proximity cards, smart cards and biometrics.

To secure a credit union's internal applications, we'll examine the advantages and complexities of using finger as one form of strong authentication and how it ties to enterprise single sign-on to strengthen an organization's overall security posture.

Enterprise Single Sign-On

Enterprise Single Sign-On (ESSO) solutions require a company's employees to remember and provide just one set of credentials-user name and password-to access the full portfolio of applications, data, and services for which that user is authorized. While ESSO technology is not new, many solutions have been expensive, time-consuming and rarely lived up to expectations. However, there are new, more cost-effective solutions on the market today that help organizations benefit from increased user productivity and reduced password management costs by enabling SSO to all your enterprise applications.

When examining single sign-on technology options, one should look for an affordable, easy-to-implement appliance that enables SSO without modifying the applications that employees use everyday. This will result in companies being able to benefit through centralized password administration, lower help-desk costs, increased productivity, and complete compliance - without modification of existing applications or interruption or downtime of business activities. In addition, to maximize the enterprise-wide benefit, an ESSO solution should fully-support multiple strong authentication methods and centralized password policies to allow companies to implement levels of security that are appropriate for their environments.

Biometrics

Biometrics - the measurement of one or more physical or behavioral characteristics of an individual - is used to increase a system's security level dramatically without increasing the complexity. Biometric identifiers are highly-reliable since they cannot be easily faked, altered, or misappropriated.

Biometric identifiers include both physical (fingerprints, hand geometry,

eye patterns, facial features) and behavioral (voice prints and signatures). Behavioral identifiers are more subjective than physical identifiers. They can vary because of external conditions such as illness, and can conceivably be imitated. Physical identifiers are virtually impossible to replicate, and are considered to be the more reliable of the two identifiers.

The most technically-advanced, proven and recognized physical identifier is the fingerprint. These were first used for positive personal identification more than one hundred years ago, when it was proven that each finger of every individual has a unique arrangement of ridge detail. In the years that followed, organizations throughout the world have had growing requirements for positive identification systems resistant to high technology fraud. This requirement has created increased interest in biometrics, and fingerprint technology has remained the most effective, economical, and widely used biometric identification system.

Combining the ease-of-use of a quality ESSO solution with the identity-uniqueness of can help credit unions improve employee productivity and adhere to better security practices, while strengthening their overall security posture and minimizing the burden on IT to manage such a central security system.

Key Considerations for Combining with ESSO
Integrating ESSO and can deliver significant increases in security while decreasing helpdesk calls and IT costs. To maximize the benefits of such an integrated system, it is important that any implementation of a biometric-enabled ESSO solution adhere to the following key criteria:

. Matches each user by correlating against known set of references, taking into account:
o Variations in pressure and density
o Aging or dirt induced variations in the print
o Orientation of finger on the sensor

. Utilizes a capture algorithm that:
o Captures images at higher speeds, resulting in less image blur distortion
o Normalizes for humidity variations in the finger
o Is "device neutral," and not associated with a specific sensor or reader

. Credentials are stored centrally, using strong security and privacy safeguards by:
o Ensuring that each captured fingerprint image is destroyed and cannot be misused
o Maintaining mathematical descriptions of a print's landmarks, but not the actual print itself
o Never shipping a username with the template
o Storing username in a double-blind alias mechanism on server

Performance Drives User Adoption, IT Efficiencies and Overall Value

In conjunction with the key consideration criteria above, solution performance remains the critical element to the success of any security system, and a balance between security and convenience must be maintained. Follow these performance guidelines when selecting an integrated biometric-ESSO solution:

. Ensure high-end image processing technology is embedded into a commercial product at an affordable price - there are many solutions out there, and some cost more than they should, so keep an eye out for the balance between cost and system capabilities
. Look for solutions that limit failure rate, or "False Accepts" and "False Rejects," to a rate of
Imprivata, Inc. 10 Maguire Road Building 4 Lexington, MA 02421-3120 USA phone: 781-674-2700 fax: 781-674-2760 toll-free: 1-877-OneSign

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