Biometrics For Dummies

This book provides an excellent overview of biometrics for those in the field or looking for an introductory text (there is insufficient detail to prepare for the IEEE Certified Biometrics Professional exam).As in most of the "For Dummies" series, this text would be better titled, "An Introduction and Overview to Biometrics" -- but they won't sell as many with a boring title like that.I suggest reading this before starting the IEEE CBP study to have an overall mental framework in place and to establish familiarity with terms and concepts.

Don't expect to learn much about biometrics beyond the practical applications, i.e. business security. I bought this to study biometrics for a forensic science class and it was useless for that.

Don't judge a book by its cover. Contrary to its self-effacing title, Biometrics for Dummies provides a thorough and comprehensive overview of the state of biometrics.Like all books in the For Dummies series, this one is reader-friendly and avoids jargon. It details the state of the art in biometric technology, covers various policy and privacy issues, and shows where the technology is headed.For the uninitiated, biometrics is the science of identifying humans based on unique physical characteristics, such as a fingerprint, retina, or signature. Biometric identifiers have been used for decades in IT and physical security. It has remained a niche market, though even before 9-11, technology and security industry pundits were always predicting that the next year would be the "Year of Biometrics."It is 2009, and that year has still not come, but more and more biometric technologies are arriving on the scene, and systems are being fielded on a sizeable scale. This growth is due in large part to various U.S. government mandates requiring biometrics for more effective authentication and identification, such as the Transportation Worker Identification Credential and Homeland Security Presidential Directive 12, which requires a biometric element in federal employees' identification credentials.This work focuses on comparing the various types of biometrics and shows that there is no "best" solution. Rather, every biometric technology has its own set of plusses and minuses, and it is up to you to decide what is best for your organization. The authors give readers all of the pertinent information to make an educated decision. They also explain how to effectively implement a biometrics initiative.What you can't find in the text itself, you can probably find using the comprehensive list of references and resources provided.Don't be misled by the title; this book really is a comprehensive overview of biometrics. And if 2010 does prove to be the Year of Biometrics, Biometrics for Dummies will help you implement biometric technology effectively. Only a dummy wouldn't read a book like that.

Target Audience:Business and management types who are tasked with implementing a Biometrics solution when they know nothing about Biometrics. This is a good overview for non-technical users.Summary:This is an easy read that will get you oriented into the world of Biometrics. For a technical person, the book will almost be boring at times, but give it a chance and you may learn a little bit. If you already know a bit jump to Chapter 12 and explore "Ten Tools Used in Biometrics" From there you can jump back to Part Two (Chapter 4) and explore Biometric systems in more depth.Chapter 3 discusses Biometrics, law and society. On page 56 I was reminded why Biometrics is less of a problem in the EU. They have tougher privacy laws. The very accurate observation here was that Europeans are much more secure with Biometrics because they are much more protected. I can personally vouch for that. Been there, seen that.The only real disappointment of this book is that they didn't touch more on RFID and Biometrics. It may have been beyond the scope of the book. That wouldn't stop me from buying it though. The list price is $29.99 US, but I can see that Amazon has it for much less, which makes it more attractive.I have not compared this against other books on the subject. There may be better out there. What you get out of this is based on criteria, but again if you just getting started and are non-technical, this an easy start.