TL;DR
Fingerprint biometrics leverages the uniqueness of each person's fingerprint patterns to authenticate and verify identity across industries ranging from law enforcement to consumer devices. Unlike passwords or tokens, fingerprints cannot be lost, forgotten, or guessed. While highly secure and cost-effective, the technology carries limitations — stolen fingerprint data cannot be changed — making it most powerful when combined with additional authentication factors like passwords or hardware tokens.
The basics of fingerprint biometric authentication
Fingerprints are a unique feature that every person has, and no two people have the same ones. Fingerprint biometrics is used to both authenticate (match a person's biometric template) and identify (determine the identification of a person).
A person's unique physical characteristics are called biometrics, which can be used to validate and verify identity.
Fingerprint biometrics is some of the most commonly used types of biometrics for authentication and identification purposes, but facial recognition, iris scanning, and DNA are all forms of biometric identifiers as well. Fingerprint biometrics is widely distributed, cost-effective, easy to use, effective, hard to fake, and convenient, making them a secure and useful tool for authentication and identity verification.
What is fingerprint biometrics?
Biometric technology uses unique physical or behavioral attributes that are individual and not replicable.
Fingerprints are a method of identifying a person, and they are specific to each individual. No one else will have the same fingerprints that you do. Fingerprints are made up of specific patterns, including ridges, valleys, arches, loops, and whorls.
For the purposes of proving identity, there are three main methods used:
- Something you know, like a password
- Something you possess, such as a token or keycard
- Something you are, including fingerprints, face, or hand
Fingerprint biometrics involves something you are. You always have your fingerprints on you, and they belong to you alone. Fingerprint biometrics has been used for decades with recent technology becoming more and more advanced, allowing for a more technical and widespread use of this important tool.
How does fingerprint biometric authentication work for security?
Biometrics uses a statistical analysis and measurement of physical or behavioral characteristics as a security feature to authenticate and identify an individual. Fingerprint biometrics can be a frictionless form of security that is easy and seamless to use.
Fingerprint scanners can be used to secure physical access to locations as well as to devices. Fingerprint biometrics is a security feature that cannot be forgotten or misplaced like a password or hardware token.
Biometric security can be more secure than other forms of authentication, as biometric information is linked to a specific individual and therefore more difficult to steal, lose, or compromise. This can improve reliability and simplify security processes.
What are the limitations of fingerprint biometric security?
There are some flaws to fingerprint biometrics, however, and cybercriminals can find ways around this form of security. If the wrong person enters their fingerprints matched to your data, for example, it is harder to invalidate these biometric authentication details.
Also, if someone does gain access to your fingerprint data, which is left anywhere you touch and can be fairly easily obtained, this data is not changeable. You cannot change your fingerprints, so replicas will be able to access anything that is fingerprint-protected.
Master fingerprints have been able to "fool" smart devices, and software flaws can present issues for fingerprint biometric security.
How do fingerprint biometrics work?
Fingerprint biometrics uses some form of a scanner to obtain an image of your fingerprint. Methods include the following:
- Optical scanner: This takes a digital image of your fingerprint by lighting up the finger through a prism and reading the way the ridges and valleys reflect the light. This information is then converted into an image.
- Capacitive scanner: This generates a small electric charge through miniature built-in capacitors that store electricity. The capacitors are discharged when the finger touches the scanner. A higher level of discharge is created by fingerprint ridges, which have a greater contact surface, and less by the valleys, which create gaps in the skin. The difference between these is measured to determine a pattern.
- Ultrasound scanner: An ultrasound signal is used to record the echo the fingerprint creates, as ridges and valleys create different echoes. This scanner does not need to be in direct contact with the finger to get a reading and also has the benefit of reading in a more three-dimensional manner.
- Thermal scanner: This uses heat to measure the temperature difference between the ridges and valleys of the fingerprint. It creates the image of the fingerprint based on the contrast between the two.
How is fingerprint data matched and stored?
After fingerprints are scanned, they can then be matched based by pattern matching, which compares two images looking for similarities. More commonly, minutiae-based matching is used, which looks more closely at the direction and location of the points.
The unique data and specific characteristics of the fingerprint are filtered and then saved as a mathematical representation (algorithm) or as an encrypted biometric key. The fingerprint image itself is not saved, only the binary code (or series of numbers) is retained and used for verification purposes. This algorithm cannot be reverse engineered to recapture the image of the fingerprint and thus cannot be duplicated.
Fingerprint data is generally stored on the device itself and not in the cloud.
Benefits of fingerprint biometrics
Overall, fingerprint biometrics is considered to be highly secure and a common method of protection. For the highest level of security, they can be used as part of a dual or multi-factor authentication (MFA) model that includes the use of at least one other method as well, such as a password or token.
Benefits of fingerprint biometrics include the following:
- Fingerprints cannot be lost or misplaced, and they are always with the person.
- Fingerprints are hard to fake and more secure than a password or token.
- Fingerprint patterns cannot be guessed and are non-transferable.
- Fingerprint biometrics offers a high level of security for identity verification.
- Fingerprint biometrics is user-friendly and convenient.
- Fingerprint biometrics is easily deployable and cost-effective.
- Use of fingerprint biometrics can provide accountability.
- Fingerprints take work to steal or spoof.
- Fingerprint biometric techniques are fast, simple, and easy to use.
Where is fingerprint biometrics used?
Biometric technologies, and fingerprint biometrics specifically, are used across a wide variety of fields and industries for the purpose of authentication and identity verification. These are examples:
How are fingerprints used in government and national security?
- Law enforcement and public security: Fingerprints are a common method of identifying suspects and criminals. The IAFIS (Integrated Automated Fingerprint Identification System) is the national computerized system that stores, compares, and exchanges digital fingerprints for the purpose of matching them to a known party in the database.
- Military: Fingerprint identification can be used to identify non-U.S. citizens on the battlefield, to help determine military allies and enemies. The Defense Forensics and Biometric Agency (DFBA) stores biometric information, including fingerprints as a matter of national security.
- Border control and travel: The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) runs the Automated Biometric Identification System (IDENT) to store and process biometric information, such as fingerprints for immigration and border control, intelligence, background information for national security clearances, law enforcement, and for the purposes of national security.
How are fingerprints used in commercial and everyday settings?
- Health care: Biometric ID cards containing fingerprints can be used to access health care services and resources to ensure the right person is receiving treatment. Hospitals, pharmacies, and clinics also often have fingerprint scanners to match a patient to their patient records.
- Facilities: Fingerprint biometrics can be a form of physical access control used by companies and organizations to grant and deny access to actual locations based on who a person is and not what they have or know.
- Computer systems and networks: Smartphones, laptops, and computers all often use a form of biometrics, such as a fingerprint, to unlock them, granting access to only that specific user. This is called logical access control.
- Commercial applications: Many different commercial and retail industries use fingerprint biometrics to verify a customer's identity and authenticate a user. Banks and financial institutions can require fingerprint access for transactions, for example, as can credit card readers or retail establishments.
DHS also issues e-Passports in the United States to be used for international travel, which contain an electronic chip that holds biometric information of the holder, like fingerprint data. Airport security can also use fingerprints and other biometrics to authenticate travelers.
Fingerprint data is stored directly in the device itself, making it more secure and less prone to potential privacy issues or data breaches.
Fingerprint biometrics can be used to authenticate a person based on matching the data within a system, or it can be used as a method of identity verification to ensure that a person is who they say they are. Fingerprint biometrics can add an extra layer of security over password and token security measures.
Fingerprint scanners are dropping in price, making them more widely available and accessible for a wide range of businesses, organizations, and industries.
Frequently asked questions
Can fingerprint biometric data be stolen and used to impersonate someone?
While fingerprint data can potentially be obtained — since fingerprints are left on surfaces you touch — the data stored by biometric systems is not an image of your fingerprint. It is saved as an encrypted mathematical algorithm that cannot be reverse-engineered back into a fingerprint image, making direct duplication extremely difficult. However, if the underlying data is compromised, it cannot be changed the way a password can, which is a key limitation.
What is the difference between fingerprint authentication and fingerprint identification?
Authentication matches a person's fingerprint against a stored biometric template to confirm they are who they claim to be. Identification, on the other hand, determines who a person is by comparing their fingerprint against a broader database of known individuals — a process commonly used in law enforcement.
What types of scanners are used to capture fingerprints?
There are four main types: optical scanners (which use light and a prism to capture a digital image), capacitive scanners (which measure electrical discharge differences between ridges and valleys), ultrasound scanners (which use sound echoes and can work without direct contact), and thermal scanners (which detect temperature differences across the fingerprint surface).
Is fingerprint biometrics more secure when combined with other authentication methods?
Yes. While fingerprint biometrics alone offers a high level of security, combining it with at least one other factor — such as a password or hardware token — as part of a multi-factor authentication (MFA) model provides the strongest protection. This layered approach compensates for the inherent limitation that fingerprint data, unlike passwords, cannot be reset if compromised.
Where is fingerprint data stored, and is it safe from breaches?
Fingerprint data is typically stored directly on the device itself rather than in the cloud. This local storage approach reduces exposure to large-scale data breaches. The data is retained only as an encrypted binary code, not as a fingerprint image, which further limits the risk of misuse even if the device is compromised.
What industries rely on fingerprint biometrics today?
Fingerprint biometrics is used across a wide range of sectors, including law enforcement (via systems like the FBI's Integrated Automated Fingerprint Identification System), military and national security, border control and international travel, health care, corporate facilities access control, consumer electronics, and commercial banking and retail transactions.
References
"No Two Fingerprints are Alike." (2022). Rutgers.
Biometric Security Systems: A Guide to the Devices, Fingerprint Scanners and Facial Recognition Access Control. (August 2020). IFSEC Global.
Privacy Impact Assessment Integrated Automated Fingerprint Identification System National Security Enhancements. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).
DFBA Overview. (2021). Defense Forensics & Biometrics Agency.
DHS/OBIM/PIA- 001 Automated Biometric Identification System. (November 2019). Department of Homeland Security (DHS).
E-Passports. Department of Homeland Security.
