Why Biometric Authentication Will Revolutionize Security
Digital technology was supposed to unlock faster, more convenient customer experiences. Instead, people protect sensitive data with risky passwords, documents, and security tokens. With so much at stake, we must ask why businesses and individuals still rely on outdated, discriminatory, and rigid systems for identity verification, especially when new technologies offer a different vision of the future.
Artificial intelligence (AI) and biometrics harness unique personal identifiers giving us a new way to authenticate and verify identity across global industries accurately and seamlessly. Passwords will soon be a thing of the past.
No more passwords
An estimated 24 billion passwords are exposed yearly on the dark web. In England, alone, fraud is now the most common crime, costing the UK economy £137 billion each year. In the U.S., PwC’s Global Economic Crime and Fraud 2022 Survey finds total losses of US$42 billion.
Today’s identity systems are heavily critiqued for being rigid and inflexible, failing to keep up with societal changes and developments in technology and most importantly, failing to keep people safe. They are also discriminators, failing to recognize and respect the diversity of identities and experiences within a population.
Traditional methods for protecting systems and resources aren’t working. Around the world, rigid and inflexible identity systems are lagging behind the changes in society and technological developments. Most importantly, they are failing to do the one thing they were designed for — keeping people safe online. To compound matters, they can also be discriminatory failing to recognize the diversity of identities and experiences within a population.
In 2023, people are clamoring for a better vision of the future. In biometrics, they have found it. By using methods, which are very difficult to steal or replicate, biometric authentication is showing itself to be both safe and convenient. No longer do they needto remember passwords or carry documents — now they have everything they need on their person. The spread of devices with built-in biometric sensors, such as smartphones and laptops make it easier than ever for organizations to implement and deploy biometric authentication solutions.
Its secret weapon in the fight against fraud is AI. Like a virus, fraudsters adapt and find new ways to hack accounts. To combat this, organizations can turn to antifraud technologies based on AI and machine learning to out-evolve the attackers.
Biometrics for blockchain
The transformation of financial services through the rapidly evolving blockchain and cryptocurrencies requires a new approach to authentication. Previously, the idea of biometrics being used to authenticate blockchain users and organizations were associated with surveillance. However, biometrics are becoming universally accepted, matching the adoption rate and growing number of cryptocurrencies.
According to the annual Fidelity Digital Assets survey conducted by Fidelity Management, in which they surveyed 1,052 institutional money managers across North America, 58 percent of institutional investors surveyed bought cryptocurrency in the first half of 2022. Furthermore, 74 percent of those surveyed said that they intend to invest in cryptocurrency at some point in the future.
From the acceptance of cryptocurrencies to the distribution of non-fungible tokens (NFTs), more organizations are adopting various types of blockchain technology. In all these cases, the ability to positively verify the identities of people will be critical.
To meet demand and keep customers secure, organizations that have decided to adopt the use of blockchain must invest in technology that reinvents the way they verify and authenticate their customers’ identities. They have to protect user privacy and security and comply with government regulations.
This new, high-tech age needs an equally sophisticated form of verification that protects privacy quickly and securely. Biometrics can be that technology. Traditional forms of verification require people to hand over official identification such as a passport or driver’s license. However, these can be stolen and copied. They also include sensitive information which doesn’t always need to be shared for identity verification.
For example, bouncers, liquor store cashiers, and casino hosts don’t need your full address, name, or donor status to complete transactions. They only need to know that you meet the establishment’s age requirements.
Biometrics can do this simply with the customer providing a biometric sample such as a fingerprint, selfie, or iris scan. It’s faster, easier, and much more difficult for fraudsters to replicate.
Biometric authentication is going to be everywhere
Biometrics accurately automate verification and authentication for enterprises while simultaneously providing customers with maximum ease of use. Businesses in all sectors, including financial services, hospitality, travel and retail will want to reward loyalty and improve overall service without creating onerous experiences for customers.
Digital ID verification will also attract hospitals and health servicing to provide secure data access to the right people while preventing the wrong people from accessing health data.
Now more than ever, the stakes around protecting user data are so high and privacy means passwords are becoming a thing of the past. Biometric authentication technology is a force to be reckoned with. It offers the best of all worlds — a more personalized user experience, while securely preserving privacy.
About the author
Ricardo Amper is the founder & CEO of Incode Technologies. He has over 20 years of experience founding and leading companies. Ricardo has deep expertise in sales, marketing, production and leveraging cutting-edge technology to solve traditional business problems. In 2015, Ricardo founded Incode in San Francisco.
DISCLAIMER: Biometric Update’s Industry Insights are submitted content. The views expressed in this post are that of the author, and don’t necessarily reflect the views of Biometric Update.
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Even Poor Biometrics Are Better Than No Security At All
The concept of biometrics is not new. International super spies have been accessing top secret information with fingerprint and retina scans, voice recognition, and other biometric methods in movies and TV shows for decades. Things like facial recognition and fingerprint scanning have finally made their way to mainstream devices used by average consumers, though, which raises the question of whether or not they provide adequate protection—or if they are more or less secure than the traditional username and password.
Better Than Nothing
It may not be a very convincing argument, or a compelling endorsement of biometrics, but biometric security is better than nothing.
There is an individual who has reached out to me a couple times—Hitoshi Kokumai. He believes that biometric authentication that substitutes for traditional passwords or PINs is inherently less secure than the password or PIN. He created a short video explaining that biometric authentication provides a false sense of security and results in “below-one factor authentication.”
Kokumai is generally correct and makes a number of good points. A password or PIN would still be safe, but someone could unlock your mobile device with facial recognition or your fingerprint while you are asleep or unconscious. The part I agree with most in the video is the idea that requiring both a biometric method and the password or PIN—in other words, implementing two-factor authentication—would be exceptionally more secure than either of those methods by itself.
Ultimately, I disagree with the “sky is falling” premise, though, on the grounds that biometric authentication is infinitely better than no protection at all. It’s also better than using simplistic, easily guessed or cracked passwords and PINs like “password” or “1234”.
How effective biometric security is depends on your perspective. If you’re looking at it from a pure security standpoint, and trying to find ways to provide as much protection as possible against all kinds of attacks, then biometric security has some flaws and pitfalls that might make you think twice. If, however, you’re looking at it from the perspective of people simply choosing not to enable security at all or choosing stupid PINs like 1234, biometric security is an exponentially better choice.
Prior to Touch ID, many iPhone users—my wife and kids included—just had no security at all. Many people decided it was too tedious to enter a 4-digit PIN every time they wanted to use their smartphone or tablet, so they just didn’t enable passcode protection. There were also a significant number of people who implemented a PIN, but chose to make it something simple to remember—and therefore also easier to guess or crack.
Biometric security, whether it’s Touch ID on an iOS device or Windows Hello facial recognition on a Windows 10 PC, generally requires also setting some sort of password or PIN as a failsafe. If you ever lose a finger or the Touch ID sensor malfunctions somehow, you still have a way to access the device. The biometric authentication makes it more convenient to access a secure device, while also forcing users to have some security enabled in the first place.
In addition, because you’re going to be logging in to the device with your thumb or just by smiling at the camera, you are free to choose a stronger, more complex password or PIN. There is less concern over needing to remember it—although you still don’t want to write it on a Post-It note, or store it in a spreadsheet on your computer called “Passwords.Xlsx”. When you know you’re unlikely to ever need it, though, you can use “ME8#Ccg73UE@8Ky” instead of “MyPassword1”.
Whether or not biometrics are inherently secure, or more secure than traditional passwords and PINs, the net result of biometric authentication on computers and mobile devices is that many more people are securing their devices. Any security is better than no security at all.
Biometrics Are Not Perfect
That said, biometrics do come with some caveats and are not a perfect authentication solution.
Today’s fingerprint scanning techniques are more advanced than just matching an image of a fingerprint. The Touch ID fingerprint sensor on the iPhone 5s is more complex than that and requires a living fingerprint—with a pulse and body temperature—not just the image of your fingerprint pattern.
Still, hackers proved within a couple weeks of the launch of Touch ID that it is technically possible to create a duplicate of someone’s fingerprint—a sort of skin overlay—that you can then use over a living human finger (or thumb) to gain access.
In fact, as time goes on and technology improves it will continue to get easier to do things like spoof a fingerprint, and attackers will be able to do it much faster. Researchers at Michigan State University recently demonstrated that a mobile device fingerprint scanner can be duped using a 300 dpi fingerprint printed on special AgIC paper using conductive silver ink. Those are not things everyone has lying around, but it is faster and easier than the complex and convoluted method used by the Chaos Computer Club to spoof the Touch ID fingerprint just a few years ago.
The Biometrics Achilles Heel
The thing that makes biometrics such a great way of authenticating someone and proving they are who they say they are is also one of its greatest weaknesses. Biometric authentication techniques rely on things that are completely unique to you—your fingerprints, voice pattern, retina pattern, facial features, etc.
The problem is that if an attacker is able to obtain any of those things, there is nothing you can do. You can’t just change your fingerprints like you can change your password. The OPM data breach last year exposed more than one million fingerprints to the attackers—fingerprints of people who potentially work for the US government and have active security clearances.
One of the arguments that has come up in the ongoing battle between Apple and the FBI is the fact that if the terrorist involved in the San Bernardino shootings had an iPhone with a Touch ID fingerprint sensor the FBI might be able to access it by simply using the fingerprint of the dead shooter. That might be true—assuming the terrorist ever configured Touch ID and added any fingerprints.
It’s a moot point in the case of Apple vs. The FBI because the shooter had an iPhone 5C, which does not have a Touch ID sensor. However, it illustrates one of the major weaknesses of biometrics—you can’t stop being you, so if an attacker can figure out how to spoof or fake a duplicate of some sort, there’s nothing you can do.
Raising the Bar
A few years ago my son got an Android smartphone with facial recognition. I “hacked” into his device in about five seconds by showing his smartphone camera a picture of him I had stored on my iPhone. Obviously, that is not very secure.
Fast forward to 2015. The Windows Hello facial recognition in Windows 10 requires a more advanced camera technology that isn’t available on most devices, but you definitely can’t fool it with a smartphone picture. Researchers tested it out and found that even an identical twin can’t fool Windows Hello.
If we are talking strictly about the rudimentary biometrics available a few years ago, I would be much more likely to completely agree with Kokumai. As biometric technology advances, though, and analyzes a complex array of information about you beyond just the pattern of your fingerprint or a picture of your face, I believe that biometric authentication is a viable substitute for the password or PIN, and makes all of us more secure—especially given the lazy alternative of just not using any security at all.
Biometric Verification In Fintech: The Future Of Secure Online Transactions
Financial institutions (FIs) or Fintechs have historically been hotspots for fraudulent activity. The sector is a popular target for identity theft and online banking fraud, as well as financial crimes such as money laundering and terrorism funding. But, in the previous decade, its security has grown dramatically. It is now progressing to the next level of sophisticated security, Biometric Verification.
Biometric verification appeared to be a future technology that would take time to develop and become a part of our daily life a few decades ago. But, technical advances in developing and deploying these systems to detect each person’s unique characteristics have made fiction a reality far sooner than expected.
Yet, the security of existing authentication mechanisms is in doubt. Passwords may be readily hacked or guessed using personal information that is routinely given online, notably on social media. It’s also true that the top 20 PIN combinations in the globe account for more than 25% of all four-digit passwords currently in use.
Hence, FinTech companies seeking methods to simplify procedures while simultaneously improving security picked biometrics, particularly facial biometrics like Face Match and Face Trace, which leverage AI and ML technologies to be exact while also maintaining user onboarding speed. Biometric technology, according to industry leaders and experts, is the greatest alternative for a simple consumer verification procedure in mobile banking, retail, and other industries.
What is Biometric Verification?
Biometrics is the precise verification of user based on their inherent physical or behavioural features. To repeat, it requires identifying patterns unique to each individual, such as the face, voice, fingerprints, or vein pattern, and utilising them to identify service users of all types during identity verification.
Because these patterns are impossible to replicate, they are suitable for protecting sensitive processes such as online financial transactions. Biometric technology is being used by fintech firms to overcome the challenges connected with anonymity on the internet, including social media, as well as to provide simple and practical solutions for their customers and workers’ everyday operations.
Biometric technology employs biological data for authentication, such as speech recognition or touch ID fingerprints. The human features used for identity verification are different and specific to each person. Because of our smartphones’ fingerprint and facial recognition capabilities, many of us are already familiar with biometric technology. Biometric verification is an ideal choice for the banking sector because of its security and simplicity.
Biometric technology may be used to validate a customer’s identification at any time in the banking business. For example, biometrics may be used for:
User Onboarding: A consumer’s identification is initially confirmed by recording their face before they are enrolled as a customer.
Identity verification: Customers can utilise the validated data when they use the platform for payment, withdrawal, or other operations.
Compliance Screening: Specific regulatory compliance requirements necessitate the use of identity verification using AML screening and KYC Onboarding, either for global sanction screening or PEP screening against watchlists.
What are the modes of Biometric Verification For Fintech Companies?
Humans have genetic data that is unique to them. Since that biometric verification providers such as IDcentral rely on such data to enable secure access, biometric verification has several means of authentication.
Fingerprint Recognition
Smartphone apps can quickly scan and digitise a fingerprint, making it a convenient choice. Because it takes less equipment and is a simple way to validate one’s identification, fingerprint recognition is widely utilised in mobile banking and branch banking.
Face Match
Face recognition, also known as Face Match, is a technology that recognises a person’s face based on the relative location of their facial features using 3D sensors and computer algorithms. This approach is becoming more common, although it requires the usage of several non-universal technologies.
Iris Scan
Iris scanners study the intricate colour and line patterns of the iris. Some iris scanners are even accessible on mobile phones and are easy to install in permanent areas like ATMs.
Because fintech relies primarily on mobile banking, iris authentication would be impossible for them to implement.
What are the benefits of Biometric Verification?
Biometrics have a lot of potential in the FinTech industry. Among the most notable benefits of biometrics in the finance sector are:
Fast and reliable identity verification
Biometric technology allows customers to be authenticated properly and promptly. The customer’s identity is validated in seconds, which benefits both the consumer and the bank.
Improved Fraud Protection
Because papers can be falsified or stolen, biometric authentication depends on differentiating qualities to prevent online banking fraud. When biometric technology progresses, it will provide a very secure method of verifying identities of banking clients.
Lower operating expenses
Since biometric data removes the need for extra equipment or human operators, financial institutions may drastically cut their operational costs.
Transaction management from any device
Clients may control their financial transactions using biometrics from any device and from any place, giving the utmost ease. Transactions will be safer because of biometric verification, as well as easier because they can be completed from any location with internet connectivity.
Reduced fraud
The use of biometrics in banking helps to avoid insider fraud and cyber-attacks. Biometric technology helps banks develop secure employee authentication while also giving a detailed audit record of every transaction. When users utilise online banking, it also secures their identities.
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*** This is a Security Bloggers Network syndicated blog from IDcentral authored by Sumanth Kumar. Read the original post at: https://www.Idcentral.Io/blog/biometric-verification-in-fintech-the-future-of-secure-online-transactions/
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