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Could biometric based security make passwords obsolete?

Mar 20, 2015

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Voice biometrics, fingerprints, iris scans, and other authentication options are beginning to replace passwords as a means to verify a user’s identity and simplify the login process when banking online or via a mobile device. The key is to provide enhanced security against hackers while improving the overall user experience.

With Cybercrime on the rise, leading major tech firms are in a big effort to invest in biometric security methods.

According to Home Land Security News Wire, Samsung has now introduced its own fingerprint scanner. Qualcomm recently unveiled its 3D fingerprint technology, which is now being built into the chips of many of its devices.

According to a report in Business Insider, firms are incorporating biometrics — the recognition of a user through fingerprint, iris, voice, or facial scans — to stay ahead in a competitive industry.

“I would love to kill the password dead as a primary security method because it’s terrible,” said White House cybersecurity coordinator Michael Daniel during a security tech forum last year. Daniel’s statement foreshadowed larger industry moves, first and foremost with Apple’s successful introduction of Touch ID in its latest lines of iPhones.

This move on the part of such a large company has led to a growing conversation about biometrics, and has spurred others to follow.

In tens of millions of cases, passwords have been stolen in breaches of major retailers, including companies such as Target, Home Depot, and JP Morgan Chase. It is one of the principal elements of identity theft.

“Biometrics are likely to be a major part of any new identity verification effort,” said Ramesh Kesanupalli, the vice president of Fast Identity Online Alliance (FIDO). “If you don’t eliminate dependency on the password you’re not solving the problem, you are only treating the symptom.” FIDO includes 170 members including manufacturers of hardware and software. Many industry experts also share that outlook.

“Moving the world away from passwords is an enormous task, and FIDO will succeed where others have failed,” said Microsoft program manager Dustin Ingalls.

International Data Corp predicts that 15 percent of mobile devices will be accessed with biometrics in 2015, and the number will grow to 50 percent by 2020.