Security and Privacy Implications in the Deployment of Biometric-Based ID card for University Students and Staff

Being an automated measurement of biological or behavioural traits that identifies an individual, biometric identification provides a reliable solution to the security mechanisms of user authentication and integrity   in identity Management systems. With the recent widespread deployment of Biometric systems in a variety of applications, there have been an alarming concern about the Security and Privacy of what has been seen by many people as an emerging technology with an unfolding security vulnerabilities and threats. The acceptability of this emerging technology, however, by the general public, is absolutely a function of the system designers to prove that these systems are sturdy and have an infinitesimal error rates with respect to the fundamental properties of security systems such as availability, confidentiality, integrity and accountability. Given the above, therefore, this paper presents an overview of the various security threats of biometric system and countermeasures that have been proposed to address the privacy implications associated with deployment of Biometric-based ID card for University students and staff. An important issue such as biometric templates is also being highlighted. Unlike password as an authentication mechanism; Biometric template is a one-way function and cannot be reissued when compromised.