In the not so distance future, we see a digital world where using passwords for protection and identification will be obsolete.
Remembering, storing and using user generated password information to access sensitive and personal material will become a thing of the past, as biometrics security will become a far more widespread and sophisticated way to securely access sensitive information.
Password or passcode access control is not secure as it does not rely on the actual human, being present at the time of the transaction. Instead, it relies only on the constructed elements i.e., the password, memorable answers, passcodes. Etc being available, which are devolved from the human themselves. All information that can and is readily stolen from unsuspecting victims.
As we know, at the heart of biometrics is its ability to differentiate between us based on our biological and personal characteristics like voice, language, iris or fingerprints. Not in the artifice of protection we give to ourselves through the creation of passwords and memorable phrases.
Password/ passcode access control is not secure as it does not rely on the actual human being present at the time of the transaction. Unlike biometric security.
As digital fraud is on the increase, the necessity to keep evolving is essential. We know through our own solutions at Arana Security, such as our Biometric Access Control and Biometric ID platform that biometric security offers a vital defence against the rising wave of criminal fraud.
In a recent report on cyber fraud by UK Finance, the organisation states that fraud in UK has reached a level where it ‘poses national security threat’.
Figures, reveal that during the first half of 2021, £754 million ($100 million) has already been stolen from digital consumers. According to business internet service provider (ISP) Beaming, small businesses in the UK were particularly impacted, with two-thirds of UK companies, employing between 10 and 49 people, falling victim to some form of cybercrime.
This equated to a total cost of 17bn or an average loss of £65,000 per small business in damaged assets, financial penalties and business downtime.
We know at Arana Security that biometrics offers a vital defence against the rising wave of criminal cyber fraud.
Criminal gangs use a variety of tactics to get our passwords and other sensitive information. Tactics including phishing, hacking and malicious software. Different and complex approaches which all amount to the same thing, obtaining of personal details to access finances. Cybercrime has the potential to affects us all, even the savviest of consumer or company.
Each year the UK Office for National Statistics (ONS) releases a Crime Survey for England and Wales. In the most recent survey for the year ending in March 2018, the ONS estimates that around 4.5 million cybercrimes were committed in England and Wales during that twelve-month period. Of those, around 3.24 million were fraud offences.
Recently Chief Technology Evangelist Benoit Grangé, told the Digital Journal that the responsibility for security and consumer protection was firmly at feet of banks, financial institutions and big tech firms, “Big tech needs to be held to account and recognise the role they must play to ensure that consumers are protected from fraud and retain control over their personal data.”
More and more institutions are adopting biometrics security to protect themselves and their consumers including the big high street players such as Allied Irish bank, Barclaycard and Natwest, who all use voice biometrics to authenticate callers.
Interesting voice biometrics can be used in reverse too and not only give clearance to the genuine consumers but also identify the fraudulent ones. NatWest Bank recently compared the voices of callers to its contact centre with a library of untrusted voiceprints and shockingly was able to identify 1 in every 3500 calls as a fraud attempt.
The future sees biometrics technology continuing to be developed across linguistics and online biometric behaviour too.
Different to voice biometrics, which is how we sound, linguistic biometrics tracks the grammar, sentence construction and vocabulary used by a person to create an even more comprehensive digital identity print that is highly unique.
Taking this even further and overlaying this information with ‘online behaviour biometrics’, which monitors the way a person holds a mouse, types or swipe/ tap their device, and sends an alert if this is radically different, will offer a level of sophistication currently lacking but fundamentally needed in all online transactions.
Biometrics security control offers a lifeline against the swell of fraud, as it is simply much more difficult to obtain someone’s biometrics compared to someone’s password.
Arana Security supports business of all size to future proof and protect their concerns through biometric applications that are bespoke and agile to your business needs.
If you invest fully now in biometric technology, you will be arming your assets and customers against all forms of criminal cyber activity in the future that sadly is not a case of if it may happen but when.
