Fingerprint Vulnerability: A Survey

With an increasing number of internet users utilizing smartphones and similar devices, fingerprint scanners are becoming increasingly important as a security feature. From a business point of view, a company put its reputation at risk if its biometric security system can be spoofed. From a user point of view, since the fingerprint last for a lifetime, once leaked they are leaked for the rest of user’s life. This survey reviews the fingerprint system, classifies different parts of it including techniques for extracting features and matching procedures, different vulnerabilities and proposes three avenues for mitigating the vulnerabilities including software (big data and encryption/ decryption) and secure hardware techniques.