Biometrics systems under spoofing attack: an evaluation methodology and lessons learned

Biometrics already form a significant component of current and emerging identification technologies. Biometrics systems aim to determine or verify the identity of an individual from their behavioral and/or biological characteristics. Despite significant progress, some biometric systems fail to meet the multitude of stringent security and robustness requirements to support their deployment in some practical scenarios. Among current concerns are vulnerabilities to spoofing?persons who masquerade as others to gain illegitimate accesses to protected data, services, or facilities. While the study of spoofing, or rather antispoofing, has attracted growing interest in recent years, the problem is far from being solved and will require far greater attention in the coming years. This tutorial article presents an introduction to spoofing and antispoofing research. It describes the vulnerabilities, presents an evaluation methodology for the assessment of spoofing and countermeasures, and outlines research priorities for the future.