The Role of Machine Learning in Advanced Biometric Systems

Milkias Ghilom, Shahram Latifi

Today, the significance of biometrics is more pronounced than ever in accurately allowing access to valuable resources, from personal devices to highly sensitive buildings, as well as classified information. Researchers are pushing forward toward devising robust biometric systems with higher accuracy, fewer false positives and false negatives, and better performance. On the other hand, machine learning (ML) has been shown to play a key role in improving such systems. By constantly learning and adapting to users’ changing biometric patterns, ML algorithms can improve accuracy and performance over time. The integration of ML algorithms with biometrics, however, introduces vulnerabilities in such systems. This article investigates the new issues of concern that come about because of the adoption of ML methods in biometric systems. Specifically, techniques to breach biometric systems, namely, data poisoning, model inversion, bias injection, and deepfakes, are discussed. Here, the methodology consisted of conducting a detailed review of the literature in which ML techniques have been adopted in biometrics. In this study, we included all works that have successfully applied ML and reported favorable results after this adoption. These articles not only reported improved numerical results but also provided sound technical justification for this improvement. There were many isolated, unsupported, and unjustified works about the major advantages of ML techniques in improving security, which were excluded from this review. Though briefly mentioned, we did not touch upon encryption/decryption aspects, and, accordingly, cybersecurity was excluded from this study. At the end, recommendations are made to build stronger and more secure systems that benefit from ML adoption while closing the door to adversarial attacks.