| EPSRC Reference: |
EP/C00793X/1 |
| Title: |
Template-free biometric encryption for data integrity assurance |
| Principal Investigator: |
Howells, Professor G |
| Other Investigators: |
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| Department: |
Sch of Engineering & Digital Arts |
| Organisation: |
University of Kent |
| Scheme: |
Standard Research (Pre-FEC) |
| Starts: |
01 October 2005 |
Ends: |
30 September 2008 |
Value (£): |
268,897
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Summary on Grant Application Form |
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Data encryption is a fundamental tool for the protection of electronically-mediated data, yet encryption itself cannot necessarily protect against fraudulent data manipulation when the security of encryption keys cannot be absolutely guaranteed. This proposal describes an exciting new approach to template-free encoding which exploits the potential of biometric identity information to authenticate activation of the encryption process. Our proposal seeks to integrate biometric security and authentication techniques within generic document models in such a way as to maximise their security potential. Biometric technologies attempt to automate the measurement and comparison of physiological or behavioural characteristics for identifying individualsThe primary aim of this project is to investigate and develop novel methods for improving document security via the generation of encryption keys directly from biometrically based data. This will serve to increase confidence and trust in the integrity of sensitive data both to their producers and users. While encryption technologies can effectively spread security, by themselves they cannot guarantee the security of the identity of the originator of the data. Biometric technologies allow for security to be introduced at document origination and document retrieval.Such a system will possess the following significant advantages:-The removal of the need to store any form of template for validating the user, hence directly addressing the disadvantages iterated above.The security of the system will hence be as strong as the biometric and encryption algorithm employed (there is no back door). The only mechanisms to gain subsequent access are to provide another sample of the biometric or to break the cipher employed by the encryption technology.The (unlikely) compromise of a system does not release sensitive biometric template data which would allow unauthorised access to other systems protected by the same biometric or indeed any system protected by any other biometric templates present.A further significant advantage relates to the asymmetric encryption system associated with the proposed technique. Traditional systems require that the private key for decrypting data be stored in some way (memorising a private key is not feasible). With the proposed system, the key will be uniquely associated with the given biometric sample and a further biometric sample will be required to generate the required private key. As there is no physical record of the key, it is not possible to compromise the security of sensitive data via unauthorised access to the key.
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Key Findings |
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This information can now be found on Gateway to Research (GtR) http://gtr.rcuk.ac.uk
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Potential use in non-academic contexts |
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This information can now be found on Gateway to Research (GtR) http://gtr.rcuk.ac.uk
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Impacts |
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| Description |
This information can now be found on Gateway to Research (GtR) http://gtr.rcuk.ac.uk |
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| Date Materialised |
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Sectors submitted by the Researcher |
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This information can now be found on Gateway to Research (GtR) http://gtr.rcuk.ac.uk
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| Project URL: |
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| Further Information: |
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| Organisation Website: |
http://www.kent.ac.uk |