Opinion Piece: Expert hits back at ‘misleading’ criticism of effectiveness of biometrics in improving security

21 August 2009

Stewart Hefferman, the CEO of UK biometrics company OmniPerception has questioned the claims made by author David Moss that biometrics is an ineffective method of both identifying and verifying individuals as a way of improving security.

In his article ‘Collar the lot of us! The biometric delusion’ Moss questions the effectiveness of biometrics as a science because it cannot offer a hundred per cent authentication of individuals and that there will always individuals who can’t enrol in a scheme.

Writing in The Register recently, Moss uses comments made by Tony Mansfield, who specialises in biometric device testing at the National Physical Laboratory and Marek Rejman-Green, the Senior Biometrics Advisor at the Home Office Scientific Development Branch that ‘biometric methods do not offer a hundred per cent certainty of authentication of individuals’ to back up his argument.

He said their opinions conflict with those of former Home Secretary David Blunkett who said that biometrics ‘will make identity theft and multiple identities impossible.’

Moss’ article uses the comments to challenge recent claims in a paper by the Identity and Passport Service (IPS) entitled ‘Safeguarding Identity’ on the National Identity Service that biometrics will play a major role in the government’s plans to improve security and reduce identity theft.

Reacting to these comments, Hefferman argues that the biometrics industry has never claimed that the technology provides a hundred per cent safeguard or that it is a panacea to improving security per se.

“It’s a bit like saying that a front door lock is the only method of securing your house when in reality it is only one part of an overall approach to security,” he argues.

“The NIS is a security system that proves people’s identities and gives them access to various services and biometrics should be seen as just one part of an overall system that consists of many layers.”

Hefferman says that the biometrics industry accepts that a percentage of people are not going to be able to enrol in any one system and that it will never been a hundred per cent reliable.

He criticised politicians for making false promises to the public about the role biometrics can play in enhancing the overall security of the nation.

“Having said this, biometrics is still an extremely and effective reliable method of security. By putting biometrics in place you provide a significantly more difficult hurdle for people to jump over or defraud.”