ACCESS CONTROL DEVICES

Successful access control system includes number of components, which depends on system’s requirements for authentication and authorization. Powerful authentication requires at least 2 forms of authentication to authenticate the supplicant’s identity. The skill to manage authentication based on what a supplicant knows is extensively integrated into the networking and security software systems in use across IT industry.

 Authentication

Authentication is validation of a supplicant’s identity. There are four basic ways to carry out authentication. They are given as follows:
a)What a supplicant knows
b) What a supplicant has
c)Who a supplicant is
d) What a supplicant produces

Biometrics
The area of authentication deals with the characteristic supplicant’s person. This process of using body measurements is called as bio-metrics.

Biometrics includes the following:

•Fingerprint – Comparison is made of supplicant’s actual fingerprint to a stored fingerprint.
•Palm print – Comparison is made of supplicant’s actual palm print to a stored palm print.
•Hand Geometry – Comparison is made of supplicant’s actual hand to a stored measurement.
•Facial recognition by using a photographic ID card – a human security guard properly compares supplicant’s face to a photo.
•Facial recognition by using a digital camera – a supplicant’s face is compared properly  to a stored image.
•Retinal print – Comparison is made of supplicant’s actual retina to a stored image.
•Iris pattern – Comparison is made of supplicant’s actual iris to a stored image.

The following are the only 3 human characteristics are considered truly unique. They are stated below:
1) Fingerprints.
2)Retina of the eye.
3)Iris of the eye.

 Effectiveness of Biometrics

Biometric technologies are evaluated based on following 3 basic criteria:
- False reject rate
- False accept rate
- Crossover error rate (CER)

 Acceptability of Biometrics

Acceptability of Biometrics depends on balance that should be struck between how acceptable security system is to users and the effectiveness of it in maintaining security. Many biometric systems which are highly reliable and effective are considered intrusive. As a result of this, many information security professionals, in an effort to stay away from confrontation and possible user boycott of biometric controls, which do not implement them. Table given below illustrates the ranking of Effectiveness and Acceptance.