Biometrics are automated methods of recognizing a person based on a physiological or behavioral characteristic. Among the features measured are face, fingerprints, hand geometry, handwriting, iris, retinal, vein, and voice. Biometric technologies are becoming the foundation of an extensive array of highly secure identification and personal verification solutions. As the level of security breaches and transaction fraud increases, the need for highly secure identification and personal verification technologies is becoming apparent.

Biometric systems security and the management of biometric information security must become integrated into the organization's overall information security management program.

Biometric-based solutions are able to provide for confidential financial transactions and personal data privacy. The need for biometrics can be found in federal, state and local governments, in the military, and in commercial applications. Enterprise-wide network security infrastructures, government IDs, secure electronic banking, investing and other financial transactions, retail sales, law enforcement, and health and social services are already benefiting from these technologies

An information security management program to protect biometric assets is a prudent business practice that helps an organization identify and manage risk. A new biometric security standard, ISO 19092 ,provides a technology-specific extension to the ISO/IEC 17799 Code of practice for information security management . Though developed in the financial services, ISO 19092 is a general-purpose standardthat can be used by any industry that employs biometric technology as a policy-based authentication mechanism.

Biometric-based authentication applications include workstation, network, and domain access, single sign-on, application logon, data protection, remote access to resources, transaction security and Web security. Trust in these electronic transactions is essential to the healthy growth of the global economy. Utilized alone or integrated with other technologies such as smart cards, encryption keys and digital signatures, biometrics are set to pervade nearly all aspects of the economy and our daily lives. Utilizing biometrics for personal authentication is becoming convenient and considerably more accurate than current methods (such as the utilization of passwords or PINs). This is because biometrics links the event to a particular individual (a password or token may be used by someone other than the authorized user), is convenient (nothing to carry or remember), accurate (it provides for positive authentication), can provide an audit trail and is becoming socially acceptable and cost effective.

ISO 19092 defines core requirements for managing and securing biometric information for all applications and environments where biometric information is used. These requirements apply to the transmission and storage of biometric information. Validation of a biometric system relies on maintenance of a secure biometric event journal that can be used for legal and regulatory compliance and ISMS audit.