The New Wave Of Biometrics

An Insight Into Biometrics

When we address questions like how to identify someone, then we think of passwords, PINs, or personal data. The fact is that these ways come with prices like loss of privacy, inconvenience, and identity fraud.

The first wave of biometrics which is physical has provided a solution. This includes matching physical features to known attributes, whether fingerprint, face, voice or various emerging factors.

The new wave of biometrics is behavioral, which even provides greater possibilities when it is combined with physical. It has been expected that by 2023, 37.2 billion transactions will be authenticated with the help of biometrics.

Enhancing Physical Biometrics

This biometric will continue to be diverse, making present solutions more secure and intelligent with the exploration of new credentials for verifying the identity of an individual. Here are few developments in it:

• Touchless fingerprint sensors

These kinds of readers have fingerprint images by making use of advanced 3D imaging technology without any need to touch the device.

This is successful in overcoming challenges that are associated with sensor-based scanners, wet and dry fingers, ghost images that are left on the corner, and hygiene concerns.

• Fingerprint on debit and credit cards

These cards have a combination of embedded fingerprint sensors with chip technology for double authentication, which can further make transactions more secure.

The digital fingerprints are encrypted on the card that avoids honey posts of sensitive information and increases data security.

• Palmprint and palm vein

It is quite simple, the palm is larger than fingers, which means more distinctive features can be captured. With the improvement in contactless scanning technology, palmprints will become more widespread.

Palm vein scanning, here infrared lights are used for scanning unique and complex vein structures can further go through the evolution. Being an internal biometric, it is tough to fake it because it is based on the flow of blood.

These developments have made it tough for hackers to exploit the identification of an individual and compromise his financial accounts.

Recognizing Behaviour

In today’s world, we rely on more than the physical appearance for identifying an individual. In the same manner, in the digital world, we are required to go beyond physical biometrics and factor in advanced technologies like AI and machine learning.

• Technologies like AI and machine learning have the potential to learn to recognize behaviours that are relevant to the task at hand and making split-second decisions.
• Within the field of mobile commerce, behavioural analytics can evaluate passive biometrics about how an individual interacts with his phone.
• From those data points, a profile of a user can be created, which is quite tough for hackers to spoof.
• The best thing with AI and machine learning is that they learn and with more samples they have smarter identification.
• Above all, they have a dynamic presence.
• Multiple behavioural biometrics can collaborate in the background for continuous verification of the individual without any layer of security leading to any disruption.

Also, these authentication techniques don’t ask for intensive personal information.

Biometrics Beyond Transactions

It is not just the change in transactions of customers. Safety of patients and privacy are also significant in the field of healthcare.

• With a significant rise in the demand for contactless and virtual services, biometrics is required to play a big role by ensuring that everyone is having safe access to the kind of support they need.
• Voice authentication, for example, can be used for more secure and convenient login to the portals of telemedicine.
• A high level of security and various checkpoints are demanded in the travel sector and bring its focus to the application of biometrics.
• Due to the need for social distancing and hygiene, facial recognition and phone-based fingerprint biometrics are coming into the place.
• Due to the return of employees to their offices, biometric solutions are turning out as a mainstay of working life for logging into devices and access to documents.

It is quite clear that we are going to witness the importance and dependency on biometrics playing an exponential role in how to transact and interact.

As per the current situation, there is an uptick in the rise of cyber-attacks and the importance of strong authentication.

Wrapping Up

All in all, effective biometrics has melted into the broader experience of consumer-centric services.

The inception of biometric solutions has encouraged a shift from knowledge-based methods of verifying to intelligent recognition- which is the replacement of the password with the person.

With the continuous adoption of such technologies, people will get more dependent on them. With our identities becoming digital, those who design the technology, need to make sure that we are advancing in it.

It indicates that the employment of security-by-design, which is an approach that takes place in the protection of identity is at the heart of biometrics.

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