In the News:
Assistant Professor Terence Sim’s Work on Biometrics Security
Assistant
Professor Terence Sim
explaining the working of the
biometrics
security system to
Singapore television viewers.
NUS School of Computing researchers have developed a new
information security system that minimises the risk of a
computer system being hijacked after login. The system works by
verifying the identity of the user continuously, using
biometrics such as thumbprint and facial features. It is the
work of a team known as the NUS Face Group, headed by Assistant
Professor Terence Sim and including Associate Professor Roland
Yap.
For most computer systems, once the identity of the user has
been verified at login, system resources are typically made
available until the user exits the system. This leaves the
system vulnerable to session hijacking, where an attacker
targets the session of use after an authorised user logs in. In
low security environments, the probability of any such breach
may not be high, and its implication may also not be serious.
However, in sensitive environments such as the airliner cockpit
and the nerve centre of defence facilities, the unauthorised use
of a computer could cost human lives.
Using the newly developed biometrics security system, a device
or equipment will automatically shut down if the system fails in
the verification of the user’s identity at any time during the
continuous verification process. With the system, thumbprint and
facial features are not only used to authenticate a session at
startup; they are also used in a loop throughout the session, to
ensure that the person using the computer terminal is indeed the
same person who has logged in.
Dr Sim was interviewed recently about the biometrics
security system on MediaCorp’s Chinese-language
television stations Channel 8 and Channel U.
The
Assistant Professor, who won the prestigious Temasek
Young Investigator Award in 2006 for his work in
face recognition, told viewers that his team is now
working to enhance the system with added parameters
of user verification, including typing speed and
rhythm.
Watch the streamed video of Dr Sim’s interview at a
connection speed suitable for you:
