AUTHENTICATION METHOD AND AUTHENTICATION SYSTEM USING BIOMETRIC INFORMATION AND FUNCTIONAL ENCRYPTION

An authentication method including, at an apparatus-generating a master secret key and a master public key, generating a secret key and a public key using enrollment target personal information, the master secret key and the master public key, and generating first information using the enrollment target personal information. Communicating the secret key and the first information from the apparatus to the authentication server, storing the secret key and the first information in a secure area of the authentication server, generating at the apparatus, a ciphertext encrypted using authentication target personal information and the public key, second information using the authentication target personal information and communicating the ciphertext and the second information from the apparatus to the authentication server. At the authentication server, performing an authentication of the authentication target personal information using the secret key, the first information, the ciphertext and the second information, wherein the performing of the authentication of the authentication target personal information includes calculating a similarity between the enrollment target personal information and the authentication target personal information by computing an Euclidean distance of the enrollment target personal information and the authentication target personal information, and the performing of the authentication of the authentication target personal information is performed in relation to the similarity.