Decentralized Biometric Authentication via Template Segmentation
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional biometric authentication and identification systems face challenges in securing biometric templates, as they are often stored or processed at centralized locations, making them vulnerable to cyber threats. Additionally, decentralized systems struggle with comparing non-identical biometric measurements and templates, and require significant computational resources.
Innovation Solution
A decentralized biometric identification and authentication network is implemented, where biometric templates are transformed into multiple template units distributed across nodes, with no single node storing or having access to all units. Biometric measurements are similarly transformed into measurement units and compared to template units at various nodes, with sub-results aggregated to determine authentication or identification.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If biometric templates are stored at centralized locations, then authentication processing is simplified, but security is compromised due to vulnerability to cyber threats
Solution Approach 1:
The biometric template is divided into multiple template units and distributed across different nodes in the network. Each node stores only a portion of the template units, so that no single node has access to the complete biometric template. This segmentation approach enhances security by eliminating single points of failure while maintaining authentication functionality through distributed comparison operations.
2Reliability
If biometric templates are distributed across multiple nodes, then security is enhanced, but system complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
A specialized node type acts as an intermediary to coordinate authentication operations across the distributed network. This intermediary node receives authentication requests, identifies which nodes hold relevant template units, and orchestrates the comparison process. This mediation layer simplifies the overall system complexity by providing a centralized coordination point while maintaining the security benefits of distributed storage.
3Reliability
If complete biometric templates are processed at centralized locations, then authentication speed is faster, but computational resources are concentrated and vulnerable
Solution Approach 1:
The authentication process is segmented into multiple comparison operations, where each node compares its stored template units against corresponding measurement units. This segmentation distributes computational workload across the network, preventing any single node from being overwhelmed while maintaining overall authentication efficiency. The parallel nature of these distributed comparisons compensates for the additional coordination overhead.
4Reliability
If biometric measurements are compared against distributed template units, then security is improved, but measurement precision requirements increase
Solution Approach 1:
The individual comparison results from multiple distributed nodes are merged to produce a final authentication decision. Each node generates a sub-result based on its local template units, and these sub-results are combined through aggregation operations. This merging approach maintains measurement precision by ensuring that the collective comparison across all distributed units achieves the same accuracy as a centralized comparison would provide.
Data Source
AI summary
A measurement unit of multiple measurement units is received. The measurement unit represents a portion of a biometric measurement of a user in response to a request to authenticate the user. Whether the measurement unit corresponds to a template unit of multiple template units is determined. The template unit represents a portion of a biometric template that represents a characteristic of the user that distinguishes the user from other users. Responsive to determining that the measurement unit corresponds to the template unit, a sub-result of multiple sub-results is determined based on a comparison between the measurement unit and the template unit. The sub-result indicates a similarity between the measurement unit and the template unit. The sub-result is sent to a node of the multiple nodes. The authentication of the user is based at least in part on the sub-result.