A Solution to Privacy Issues in the Use of Biometrics in PKI

In this short paper we introduce a technique for a more private form of biometric identification to be used in PKI applications. We discuss how this technique can be applied within Internet banking. In particular we see the opportunity to apply these techniques in some of the developing PKI markets in Asia, where the legacy PKI systems will not form a barrier to entry. Biometric techniques have great potential to bridge the gap between authentication and the end-user in PKI applications. However, one of the primary stumbling blocks has been the privacy issue involved in biometric identification. In this short paper we describe how a variation of a technique known as secret-sharing can be applied to fingerprint identification to address the privacy issue. This presents various benefits over traditional fingerprint identification and can be easily integrated into existing PKI applications.