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The Discordant Opposition Journal Issue 05 File 07
::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::May/99
::: The Discordant Opposition Journal ::: Issue 5 - File 7 :::
::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
:Biometrics:
Infinity Matrix
A technology that virtually eliminates all kinds of fraud, biometrics
is a very secure practice. It almost can not be bypassed. But I am not
here to discuss how to bypass it, I am just going to explain some of
the processes, such as fingerprinting and iris/retina scans, etc.
A Look Inside NORAD
---
Just a small prelude for what's to come. It's a little look inside the
security at NORAD's operations base in Colorado. Probably about 95% of
the data about NORAD is classified, so my information is very limited.
So anyways, here goes.
In the early 1960's, more than 690,000 tons of rock were carved out of
Cheyenne Mountain to create nearly three miles of underground
interconnected tunnels and caverns. A roadway that runs east and west
through the mountain. This complex is built to withstand virtually any
concievable natural disaster, act of sabotage and war, even
multimegaton nuclear strike. Pretty amazing, huh?
At The Front Door - The front door isn't exactly a piece of cake to get
in. To enter the NORAD complex, a visitor must travel into the
mountain on the main road and turn off to pass through a pair of three
foot thick steel doors that weigh 25 tons apiece. The outer door is
designed to close flush with the rock wall of the roadway, which is
open at either end. The roadway thus acts to channel heat and
percussion from an explosion through the mountain and away from the
doors and the complex behind them. And, I doubt you would, but if you
try to break in, uhm, your result: Big guys with guns.
The ShockProof Structure - Each building in the complex rests in its
own granite cavern on steel springs that let the structure roll with
any shockwaves that penetrate the mountain, no part of the building
touches the rock. Friction dampers, like giant shock absorbers, further
reduce the shaking that could result from an earthquake or a nuclear
explosion. Wire mesh on the wall protects communication and power
cables from rockfalls. To counter the tendency of granite to shift
under it's own weight, expandable bolts, ranging in length from 6 to
32 feet, are inserted into the rockface to form a compresses layer that
strengthens the walls of the caverns.
================
Smart Cards
---
First and foremost, I want to talk about smart cards. These aren't
exactly biometrics, but they are an advanced identification method.
Smart cards are the new answer to the traditional locks and keys to
limit access to sensitive areas. Why this has taken place, because
keys have a way of getting stolen and/or copied. There are basically
three types of smart cards. Each of these smart cards can employ an
identifying number or password that is encoded into the card itself,
all pretty much out of the reach of an average criminal. Anyways, back
to the three types of cards.
Magnetic Watermark - During manufacturing of the tape, magnetic
particles used to encode the card's permanent identification number
are set in zones of varying width at alternating 45 degree angles the
tapes longitudal axis (up and down). Data may then be encoded on the
tape, but the identifying structure of the tape itself cannot be
altered or copied. A card reader with a special head and circuitry
is needed to scan the watermark.
Optical Memory Card - Tiny dots representing binary ones and zeroes
are either photographically etched onto the storage strip during
manufacturing or burned in with a very small, low-powered laser beam.
The card, which can hold the equivalent of a 400 page book on its 3
1/4 by 1/2 inch strip, is sealed with a protective layer that cannot
be removed without destroying data and voiding the card.
Microchip Card - The card's penny-sized microchip contains a processor
and tree types of memory, totalling 21,800 bits for storing programs
and data. Sensitive information, such as the cardholder's password and
personal information is kept in the so-calle 'secret zone' in the
card's read only memory. This zone is encoded during manuafcture, and
is not accessible even to the card's owner.
================
The ManTrap
The ManTrap is a simple structure that protects from intruders by
verifying the identity of users. Here is the process it uses.
1. After entering the identification booth, a user punches in a pass
number on a 12-button keypad, signalling the computer to retrieve the
voice template and weight record registered by the person assigned that
number.
2. Through an overhead speaker, the computer broadcasts a four-word
phrase randomly selected from the 16 words previously registered.
3. The user repeats the phrase into the microphone and the sounds are
digitized for comparison with the record on file.
4. If the voice patterns match and the weight on the floor scale is no
more that 40 pounds over than the registered weight on the record, the
exit door leading into the data-processing center will automatically
unlock. If a user is not verified after seven tries, security is
alerted. Again, big guys with guns.
================
Signatures
---
Forging a signature has become one of the most useful tools in fraud.
Many people have gotten patcheck, checks and other thing issued to
them because they forged a signature on something. Now, you may not
think this would work very well, but technology have come up with some
pretty amazing stuff to make these signatures a useful and easy device
to test user identity, with stuff like acceleration sensors and
pressure sensors built into the pen. I know no-one could forge mine;
it looks like a major seismic event. But anyways, here is how the
biometric signature-recognition pen works.
The biometric pen converts a signature into a set of three electrical
signals by means of piezoelectric transducers, ceramic devices that
generate measurable voltages in response to stress.
A good example of these being used was in Rudy Rucker's The Hacker and
the Ants, the piezoelectric transducers were fitted into gloves used
in cyberspace, and they would contract and such so it gave the user
feeling. Even though this is complete fiction in this time, it is still
a good example. One transducer senses change in the writer's downward
pressure on the penpoint, farther up the pen shaft, two transucers set
at right angles to each other measure vertical and hrizontal movement.
Although the computer does not need a visible signature, the pen also
includes and ink cartidge because tests have shown that people sign
more accurately if they see what they are typing.
Signals from the pen's sensors are translated into a trio of electrical
wave forms, one representing changes in the downward pressure, the
other two representing acceleration along the pen's vertical and
horizontal axes. The crossing of a t, for example, would register as a
high point in the horizontal and a low point in the vertical wave form,
where as the dotting of an i would produce a peak in the pressure-
change wave while leaving both of the acceleration wave forms
relatively flat. A curved or diagonal stroke, for its part, would
create action in both sensors.
================
Voice Signatures
---
Vocal Signatures have become a fad in movies, where people say things
like "Hello, this is Joe Blow, my voice is my passport, verify me."
(From the movie Sneakers - a very good one at that.) As you may have
noticed, it is kind of easy to tape-record a person's voice, so this
seems a bit easy to bypass. And here's how it works.
For purposes of analysis, the computer focuses mainly on the simplest
characteristics of a voice. Its acoustic strength. This changes during
a spoken phrase from silence to varying degrees of loudness. To isolate
personal characteristics within these fluctuations, the computer breaks
the sound into its component frequencies and analyzes how they are
distributed. On a spectogram - a visual representation of the voice -
the high-amplitude frequencies are indicated by bright spots called
formants is determined by the unique shape and movement of the
speaker's lips, tounge, throat and vocal chords.
================
Iris/Retinal Scans
---
Each person carries something other but just as different as a
fingerprint in the back of their eye, the fine tracery of blood
vessels. This method, in my opinion, is one of (probably) the best
sort of biometric security, other than fingerprints.
This system uses an infrared beam to scan the eye in a circular motion.
A detector in the eyepiece measures the intensity of the light as it is
reflected from different points. A detector in the eyepiece of the
device measures the intensity of the light as it is reflected from
different points. Because blood vessels do not absorb and reflect the
same quantities of infrared as the surrounding tissue, the eyepiece
sensor records the vessels as an intricate dark pattern against a
lighter background. The device samples light intensity at 320 points
around the path of the scan, producing a digital profile of the vessel
pattern. (Only one inspection is necessary, since a person's retinal
print, or retinal signature, does not change as the voice or written
signature does.) The algorithm in the system's software then compresses
the digital profile into a reference template.
Enrollment can take as little as 30 seconds and verification can be
even faster: The user types in an identification number to call up the
reference template from the computer's memory and then looks into the
eyepiece for a retinal scan. In only a second and a half, the computer
compares the scan results with the template and grants access if the
two signatures are close enough.
================
Hand Geometry
---
Kids in school trace their hands in school and often notice that no two
are alike. This method employs a scan that maps the geometry (Shape,
bones, etc.) of the hand, and compares that to the scan.
A user enrolls in a hand geometry system by placing his/her hand on the
metal plate of a reading device, positioning the middle and ring
fingers on either side of a small peg and aligning all the fingers
along narrow grooves slotted with glass. An overhead light shines down
on the hand, and a sensor underneath the plate scans the fingers
through the glass slots, recording light intensity from the
fingerprints to the webbing where the fingers join the palm. The device
measures each finger to within 1/10,000 of an inch, marking where the
finger begins and ends by the varying intensities of light. The
information is digitized and stored in the system as a template or
coded on a magnetic-strip ID card.
Despite the uniqueness of individual hands, the method is not
foolproof. For example, if a user is enrolled in the system wearing
heavy nail polish, the sensor would not detect the true ends of the
fingertips, which would be hidden by the dark nails. The computer would
thus be unable to verify the person's identity if she tried to gain
access after removing the nail polish.
================
FingerPrinting
---
Fingerprint identification is based on the anatomical truth that no
two fingerprints are the same; each has a unique pattern of figures,
such as loops, whorls and arches. But this can easily be fooled. If
there is a scrape, or some kind of dirt or smudge, the computer cannot
properly identify the print.
At enrollment, data samples from a scan of the user's fingerprint are
interpreted as varying degrees of gray and assigned a numerical value.
This gray scale representation is processed by a complex algorithm,
which pats special attention to the places where clusters of light and
dark points indicate that a ridge has divided or ended. The system is
designed to analyze these minute ridge splits and endings, ascertaining
their positions relative to the core of the print and to one another;
the system also analyzes the angles of the ridges. These relationships
remain unaltered even when a print's impression is faint, dirty or
distorted.
Several readings are taken and manipulated by the algorithm to create a
stored template. A user wishing to gain access to a secure area merely
enters an identification number to call up a template, places the same
finger in the scanner and waits a few seconds for a verification
analysis. If the prints are a close enough match, access is granted.
================
Almost all of the methods of biometrics can be dumbfounded. Biometrics
is not very secure in my opinion, and just ask Biosone. He thinks
biometric security sucks. And, well, it does. In my opinion anyways.
Do I know my shit, or what??? :-)
Thanx to Fraggle, RELM, Biosone especially... and magickal1^
All you guys rule... thanx.
--InfinityMatrix
http://imasylum.cjb.net
matrix@pobox.alaska.net
