Increasing security in DRM systems through biometric authentication

IEEE SIGNAL PROCESSING MAGAZINE 50 MARCH 2004 ecuring the exchange of intellectual property and providing protection to multimedia contents in distribution systems have enabled the advent of digital rights management (DRM) systems [5], [14], [21], [47], [51], [53]. Rights holders should be able to license, monitor, and track the usage of rights in a dynamic digital trading environment, especially in the near future when universal multimedia access (UMA) becomes a reality, and any multimedia content will be available anytime, anywhere. In such DRM systems, encryption algorithms, access control, key management strategies, identification and tracing of contents, or copy control will play a prominent role to supervise and restrict access to multimedia data, avoiding unauthorized or fraudulent operations. A key component of any DRM system, also known as intellectual property management and protection (IPMP) systems in the MPEG-21 framework, is user authentication to ensure that only those with specific rights are able to access the digital information. It is here that biometrics can play an essential role, reinforcing security at all stages where customer authentication is needed. The ubiquity of users and devices, where the same user might want to access to multimedia contents from different environments (home, car, work, jogging, etc.) and also from different devices or media (CD, DVD, home computer, laptop, PDA, 2G/3G mobile phones, game consoles, etc.) strengthens the need for reliable and universal authentication of users. Classical user authentication systems have been based in something that you have (like a key, an identification card, etc.) and/or something that you know (like a password, or a PIN). With biometrics, a new user authentication paradigm is added: something that you are (e.g., fingerprints or face) or something that you do or produce (e.g., handwritten signature or Javier Ortega-Garcia, Josef Bigun, Douglas Reynolds, and Joaquin Gonzalez-Rodriguez