User authentication method and system

A method according to any one of claims 2 to 6 characterised in that the different biometric profiles which are added to the database (24) are artificially created profiles.

A user authentication system (10) including a security token (11) which has confidential information accessible only in response to a predetermined access code provided to the token (11), a biometric information reader (18) for capturing biometric information of the user, processing means (20) to create a user biometric profile from the captured biometric information, a database (24) for containing the user biometric profile and other biometric profiles, each biometric profile in the database (24) of biometric profiles having a unique associated code, comparator means (22) for comparing the user biometric profile created from the captured biometric information with a plurality of a biometric profiles contained within the database (24), and for selecting from the database (24) of biometric profiles the biometric profile corresponding most closely to the user profile created from the captured biometric data, and to provide the code associated with the selected biometric profile to the security token (11).

A system according to any one of claims 16 to 18 characterised in that the system (10) includes a remote processing station (30) for creating the database (24) which remote database (30) is accessible over a network connection (28) or via a telecommunications link (32).