By Errol Strachan, Lead Consultant, Data Center Engineering Services, Edarat Group Computer equipment must be housed in a secure environment and safeguarded against unauthorised users. One method of ensuring that your Data Centre is secure is the use of biometric security systems. There are various types of biometric systems, however implementation generally requires careful selection to be successful, e.g. it may cause concern to users if they are intrusive and or pose a health risk from transmittable diseases.

1. Biometrics Access Control
Systems within Data Centre
By Errol Strachan,
Lead Consultant - Data Center Engineering Services

2. For more information about Edarat Group
www.edaratgroup.com
info@edaratgroup.com
Computer equipment must be housed in a secure environ-
ment and safeguarded against unauthorised users. One
method of ensuring that your Data Centre is secure is the
use of biometric security systems. There are various types
of biometric systems, however implementation generally
requires careful selection to be successful, e.g. it may
cause concern to users if they are intrusive and or pose a
health risk from transmittable diseases.
Biometrics in its various guises has been used for nearly a
century. Most people would recognise it from seeing it
being used in the context of fingerprints used by the police
to identify criminals or to prevent fraud. This attached some
negativity to it and possibly the first obstacle will be to
change one’s perception of biometrics from one of ‘big
brother watching you’ to it being a very sophisticated and
safe method of security.
Biometrics involves measurable physiological (e.g. finger-
print, voice, face or hand geometry) or behavioural charac-
teristics (e.g. signature or responses to personal questions
etc.) that can be used to verify the identity of an individual
automatically.
Both systems provide an extra layer of security over smart
cards or identification tags, by ensuring that individuals try-
ing to access a building or system is actually authorised,
and not just someone who has found a lost card or stum-
bled across a password.
Behavioural type biometrics can be less threatening to users
than physiological types which are more intrusive but offer
greater accuracy and security. Generally speaking, the less
intrusive the biometrics systems, the more readily it is ac-
cepted.
The security advantages of using biometrics systems are:
 It eliminates the misuse of lost or stolen cards.
 Regulates access to security areas.
 Identifies anyone attempting to gain unauthorised
access
 Biometrics images are irreversible and the process
cannot be re-created from the template.
The disadvantages are:
 Capture of biometric information can cause concern
amongst users if they feel their rights are being in-
fringed upon, e.g. cultural, religious and legal rights.
The most common types available for use in Data Centres
are:
 Fingerprint Recognition - has a high accuracy rating, is
quick to use, takes up little space, so it’s useful for
providing security for a large number of users. Its as-
sociation however, with police and criminals, in par-
ticular, affects the perception of fingerprint scanning.
 Facial Recognition – this system is unobtrusive and
requires no user interaction so it is ideal for site ac-
cess control and monitoring of visitors, it also acts as a
deterrent against casual unauthorised access. Three-
dimensional systems offer higher accuracy levels and
greater flexibility.
 Retina Recognition - provides high accuracy; however
it is extremely intrusive, as it requires the user to place
his or her eye close to a camera. This technique in-
volves using a low-intensity light source through an
optical coupler to scan the patterns of the retina; this
may cause serious acceptance problems e.g. health
issues due to the process of emitting light into the
eye.
 Iris Recognition - this system is more accurate than
either facial, hand or fingerprint technology. The image
of the eye including the iris is captured using a digital
camera and then analysed using specialist software.
Iris scanning is less intrusive than retina scanning be-
cause the user is not required to focus on a target,
and due to the fact that the camera can capture the
image of the eye from a distance.
 Hand Recognition - involves analysing and measuring
the shape of the hand. This system is suitable where
there is more user access or where users access the
system infrequently and are perhaps less disciplined
in their approach to the system.
Certain biometrics systems can be intrusive and/or have
hygiene implications, such as touching a device that has
been handled by a variety of people e.g. in retina recogni-
tion, there could be concerns regarding eye infections etc.
as it involves placing the eye in extremely close contact to
the camera.
Regarding user acceptance, facial and iris recognition sys-
tems are less intrusive, as pictures taken by a digital camera
is a common occurrence, however fingerprint and hand
recognition systems are widely used in Data Centres due to
costs and they are less problematic compared with the
others.