Biometric Access Control Systems

Superior physical and logical access control at your fingertips

Security is an unignorable aspect in all business endeavours and access control is one of the important activities that help achieve the sense of security. Amid today’s ever growing security concerns, sense of security is necessitated more than ever. Placing access control at entry / exit points of sensitive places and information ensures that only right individuals or entities can access a facility or information at the right time and for right reasons.

Access control systems that use biometrics to verify authority of an individual seeking access to a physical or logical facility, are called biometric access control systems and the approach is called biometric security.

Biometric technology works on the idea that some of human characteristics are so unique that they can be used for establishing identity and authenticating it when needed. This is hardly surprising as we have been using this knowledge to identify familiar people with their face, voice, behavior and even gait.

When this intrinsic human ability is given to electronic devices, the biometric technology came to existence. With the use of mathematical and statistical methods and leveraging computerized pattern recognition ability, unique human characteristics like fingerprints, voice, face, etc. are mapped in digital information. Systems that can do biometric mapping and verify it later, are called biometric recognition systems e.g. fingerprint recognition systems, face recognition systems, etc.

There are substantial reasons why biometric security is considered superior than other methods of access control:

• Physical access control methods laid with possession based factors such as keys, fobs, access cards, etc. can be highly insure as these external artefacts can be misplaced, shared, lost or stolen. Unauthorized individuals can gain access to a secure facility with lost or stolen means of access control. This is not the case with biometrics as it uses inherent characteristics of individuals to lay access control.
• Access control laid with human guards is also prone to human errors and manipulation. Human efficiency to secure a facility may not always be at its best. Human efficiency can be affected by many factors like weariness, fatigue, etc. Access control laid with biometric access control systems can work tirelessly without any deterioration in efficiency.
• Biometric security can further be strengthened with the use of multi-factor authentication for more robust access control and identity management.
• Biometric access control is a widely used approach around the globe and this widespread use has brought down the prices of biometric access control systems, enabling price sensitive customers to adopt the technology.
• Wave of mobile devices with biometric security has transformed how people secure their devices. People are not only unlocking their phones with biometrics, they are performing financial and other sensitive transaction via the internet using biometric authentication. It has improved overall trust on biometrics.

Benefits of biometric access control

• No need to rely on external artefacts like keys, cards or remember any codes or passwords, biometrics also helps avoid consequences of losing them.
• Biometric identifiers are extremely hard to imitate, similarly modern biometric systems are hard to circumvent.
• Biometric access control systems can handle both physical and logical access with the same efficiency. There is no need to leverage different access control approaches for different purposes.
• It can secure networks and IT systems from unauthorized remote access as well as physical facilities in which they are installed.
• Biometric security is flexible and scalable. It can seamlessly connect with the other systems.
• Biometric access control improves accountability as it requires the subject to be physically present and aware while authenticating his/her identity for a transaction.
• Due to the robust nature and resistance to manipulation, biometric access control systems are best suited for regulated industries.

Access control and employee time & attendance

Biometrics for access control / time and attendance systems is now used so extensively across all industry types, that it has become a representative application of all biometric applications. No wonder many people at work simply call them “biometric system” or “fingerprint system” while they actually mean biometric attendance or access control system. Biometrics is popular for access control / time and attendance because it ensures that workers cannot manipulate time spent at work.

However, a biometric employee clock in or access control is not the guarantee of productivity or efficient payroll. Employees may simply clock in and engage in personal activities. What if you had an access control systems that could calculate the accurate time of employees whereabouts? It can be easily made possible with attendance linked biometric access control systems.

Employee clock in / clock out linked Biometric access control systems can be installed at the main door which marks the clock in or out time as an employee unlocks the door to gain access. They can also be installed on the entry and exit doors of production floor or work area to make sure that employees spend a minimum required time on the production floor. It gives businesses more control on employee time and attendance and ensures payroll efficiency along with increased productivity.