Journey of Biometric Authentication
Supports a real digital identity
Traditional Authentication
Over 90% of businesses today rely on Knowledge Based Authentication — usernames, passwords, silly “security” questions, which are distressingly easy to steal. Some add in irritating and time consuming liveness detection like the “I’m not a robot” images where you pick all the photos with traffic lights or crosswalks to detect liveness.
Customers, for example, often mistype or forget their PINs. Many customers also use weak passwords that are easily guessed, and many use the same password for multiple online accounts, meaning a breach of one password gives criminals access to all other accounts.
Another drawback to traditional authentication methods is time, or lack of time, to be more precise. Entering a PIN takes time. Typing a password takes time. Going through the challenge-and-response process of a typical call with customer service (“I first have to ask you a few questions. What is the name of your favorite book?”) also takes up valuable time and annoys customers.
Journey’s approach to cloud-based biometrics enables a fast and far more secure authentication solution that can be leveraged using a smartphone or a browser session.
Biometric Authentication
Biometric technology is becoming increasingly used as a method of user authentication. Gartner predicts that the number of businesses using biometric authentication on smartphone apps for workforce access will grow from less than 5% in 2018 to 70% in 2022.
One of the drivers behind the steady adoption of biometric authentication is accuracy. Biometrics, after all, is the most accurate way to verify a user’s identity. No two fingerprints or faces are alike.
But another driver behind the adoption of biometric authentication is demand from consumers for fast, secure, accurate ways of verifying their identities. If current trends continue, the days of having to remember your mother’s maiden name or the name of your first pet will soon be history.
Biometric authentication entails utilizing a piece of your bodily composition to verify your identity. A fingerprint, iris scan, retina scan, or other physical trait might be used. It is possible to utilize a single or several qualities.
Physiological and behavioral biometrics are the two types of biometric systems. The fingerprint, iris, and face are physiological biometrics, whereas the signature, stroke, and voice are behavioral biometrics.
Physical biometrics
Physical biometrics refers to physiological features on the human body that can serve as identification, such as a face scan or fingerprint. Companies often collect and store physical biometric data in order to authenticate identities for all sorts of uses, security being the most obvious.
- Fingerprint scanners are widely available from a range of suppliers for both desktop and portable computers. he advantages of fingerprint access are ease of use, convenience, and reliability. Although the false identification rate is about 3%, the unauthorized access probability is less than 0.00001%.
- Facial pattern recognition devices use facial geometry analysis to verify identification.
- Iris scanners are devices that examine the trabecular meshwork tissue in the iris, which is formed permanently during the eighth month of pregnancy in humans. The advantage of iris scanners is that they do not require the user to focus on the target because the iris pattern is on the eye’s surface.
- Identification gadgets based on retina scans With retina scanners, examine the patterns of blood vessels on the retina. Even twins have different capillary patterns in their retinas, which may be utilized to successfully identify personalities.
- Hand geometry recognition technologies examine hand geometry in the same way that face pattern recognition systems do.
- DNA is used mostly in the areas of specialized expertise.
Pros
- Inseparable from a person.
- Cannot be forgotten.
- Difficult to recreate the identifier.
Cons
- Biometric scanners are quite expensive.
- Biometric identification requires specific environmental parameters.
Behavioral biometrics
Any pattern of behavior unique to the user, such as the rhythm and cadence with which they typically type on their computer keyboard, is referred to as behavioral biometrics.
Behavioral biometrics can swiftly adjust to how a person uses a human-computer interface device, such as how fast they press particular keys on a keyboard, how they use a mouse, or how they swipe the screen or handle a mobile device, to aid in online fraud prevention.
- Speaker recognition: It is one of the first biometric systems. Its growth has accelerated, promising a bright future. A voice identification code can be created in a variety of methods, but the most common are various combinations of the voice’s frequency and statistical features.
- Gait recognition: This belongs in the exotic category. Due to the feature’s low repeatability and recognition, it appears that this path is a dead end.
- Signature recognition: via painting and dynamic writing qualities (for identification, a convolution is built, which includes information on painting, time characteristics of painting application, and statistical characteristics of the dynamics of pressure on the surface).
Pros
- Improves the recognition accuracy.
- To accomplish identification, no special script changes are necessary.
Cons
- Not yet widely adopted.
- As the user’s behavior is not always consistent, inaccuracies in identification may occur.
Advantages of Biometric Authentication
- Make the process quick and easy
Normally, customers have to provide the set of documents to verify their identity. Artificial intelligence helps to gather all of the information needed to conduct a full identification verification in a single step. This enhances the user experience and lowers the rate of desertion. - Personalized experience
Legacy identity verification techniques are inflexible today. They may require a password or a PIN. They don’t let clients choose how they want to identify themselves. Biometric authentication technology, on the other hand, allows businesses to provide several options for users and customers to authenticate their identity: fingerprint scan, face scan, and etc. Customers get a better customer experience when they feel in control of their data. That’s what we mean when we say “frictionless.” - Reduce Fraud
Customers are most concerned about identity theft and fraud when it comes to banking and buying online. Because biometric identifiers are difficult to imitate, biometric authentication decreases fraud. Among the unique identifiers are: Finger print scan, face scan, iris scan, and voice recognition etc.
It’s one thing to use a stolen account and password. It’s another thing completely to try to mislead a face recognition system using a customer photo. Systems that use biometric authentication are exceedingly safe.