Method and apparatus for biometric security over a distributed network

1 . A method comprising:

establishing a protocol connection with a client;

receiving a request from the client, the request to include authorization information;

validating the authorization information; and

if the authorization information is valid, transmitting a resource to the client; wherein

the authorization information includes a loose-match credential.

2 . The method of claim 1 wherein the protocol connection is a Hypertext Transfer Protocol (“HTTP”) connection.

3 . The method of claim 2 wherein the authorization information is contained in an HTTP “Authorization” request header.

4 . The method of claim 2 wherein the authorization information is contained in an HTTP “POST” request body.

5 . The method of claim 2 wherein the authorization information is contained in a Uniform Resource Identifier (“URI”).

6 . The method of claim 1 wherein the authorization information comprises keystroke timing information.

7 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

transmitting instructions to the client to cause a processor at the client to perform operations including:

recording a time of a key press;

recording a time of a key release; and

preparing authorization information containing the recorded times.

8 . A computer-readable medium containing instructions to direct a processor to perform operations comprising:

collecting biometric measurements of a user of the computer; and

transmitting the biometric measurements to a server in connection with a request for a resource.

9 . The computer-readable medium of claim 8 wherein the biometric measurements are behavioral biometric measurements.

10 . The computer-readable medium of claim 8 wherein the request for the resource is a Hypertext Transfer Protocol (“HTTP”) request.

11 . The computer-readable medium of claim 10 wherein transmitting the biometric measurements to the server comprises:

incorporating the measurements into at least one of an HTTP “Authorization” header, a body of an HTTP “POST” request, or a Uniform Resource Identifier (“URI”).

12 . The computer-readable medium of claim 8 containing additional instructions to direct the processor to perform operations comprising:

recording a plurality of times at which the user presses and releases keys of a keyboard.

13 . The computer-readable medium of claim 8 wherein the instructions are structured as one of an Active X control, a Java applet, or a Flash® movie.

14 . A system comprising:

a resource server to receive a request and to deliver a response;

a database to contain biometric template records; and

authentication logic to score collected biometric data against a biometric template record; wherein

the resource server delivers a first response if the authentication logic indicates a successful validation; and

the resource server delivers a second response if the authentication logic indicates an unsuccessful validation.

15 . The system of claim 14 wherein the resource server comprises the authentication logic.

16 . The system of claim 14 , further comprising:

an authentication server to perform the validation, wherein

the resource server transmits the credential to the authentication server; and

the authentication server transmits a response to indicate whether the credential was successfully validated.

17 . A method comprising:

collecting data to be matched by an inexact matching process;

establishing a protocol connection over a distributed data network;

transmitting the data to a server; and

receiving a response from the server; wherein

the response differs based on a result of the inexact matching process.

18 . The method of claim 17 wherein the data is biometric behavioral data.

19 . The method of claim 17 wherein the inexact matching process is to compute a biometric score based on the data and on a biometric template.

20 . The method of claim 17 wherein the protocol connection is an instant messaging protocol.