How biometrics will accustom people to use multifactor authentication: 3 scopes of the most trendy technology

Where and why to apply biometrics access management systems

When the need to protect private data arises, a strong password comes to mind first. Yet 83% of Americans use weak passwords. And 59% of people use the same password for different profiles. The only way to keep data secure is multifactor authentication.

But do you know how many people actually use MFA? According to Google’s security engineer Grzegorz Milka’s report from the USENIX Enigma conference in January 2018, less than 10 percent of active Google profiles use two-factor authentication. That is, the overwhelming majority of Internet users know that MFA is necessary and still ignore it.

It is not that they take digital security lightly. It is because MFA is inconvenient and long sometimes.

Authentication through OTP can take time for various reasons like bad cover or whatever else. Using a separate device as the second security factor may be annoying as there is a risk to forget, break, and lose the device. The point is that accustomed multifactor authentication methods are less secure than necessary and definitely less user-friendly than desired.

The solution must be graceful, accessible, and clear yet ultimately secure. And such a solution already exists and is called biometrics. According to the statistics, it is used by less than 1% of Internet users. But experts project it will raise the security bar shortly in both digital and physical environments.

How do biometrics access management systems work?

Biometric authentication is the process of confirming your identity through some unique aspects of your body. The main idea of biometric access management systems is to use parts of users’ bodies for authentication. Within this solution, different systems use various keys like fingerprints, faces, retinas, voices, etc.

Such an approach is more convenient than keeping an extra device with yourself constantly. You will neither forget nor lose your face or fingerprint. Since your face is the key it will not be stolen or used without your knowledge.

Where and how biometrics access management systems can be used

There are 3 accustomed ways to explore biometrics access management systems:

1. using as an extra security factor within MFA to protect personal data;
2. using as an extra security factor within MFA to protect corporate data;
3. to control access to offices and certain premises.

Using as an extra security factor within MFA to protect personal data

Biometrics authenticators perform like an additional security factor during authentication. The prerequisite is to use such systems along with a strong password.

Using biometrics as an additional security factor is much more convenient than using OTP or U2F as it does not depend on devices, coverage quality, etc.

Protection of corporate data

Employees are often the biggest security breach. Sometimes enterprises flout modern security systems as this measure seems inconvenient for employees and too expensive for business owners.

The way out is to use biometrics for getting access to work computers or particular programs. Only the data owner will be able to pass authentication, and no one else can get access to the computer that does not belong to him. It is possible since biometrics access management systems are supposed to lock the computer when the authorized employee leaves his workstation. To resume work it is obligatory to re-authenticate.

Control access to offices and premises

Biometrics can also be used instead of traditional keys or security cards. Software is to be integrated into an existing system of turnstiles and digital locks. A camera scans faces, only verified people are enabled to come in. It is also possible to control access to particular premises enabling or prohibiting employees to enter.

Actually, there are plenty of other ways to apply biometrics to improve security, but the aforementioned ones are the key interest now.

How biometrics access management systems prevent spoofing and do they really do?

The process of getting access to data that belongs to another person when the attacker is successfully identified as the data owner is called spoofing. Spoofing attacks involve the use of photos, videos or masks to override a security system and be authenticated as the data owner.

To prevent spoofing, biometrics access management systems use liveness detection technologies to detect whether it is a human being in front of a camera. There are hardware tools like cameras with depth or infrared sensors and there are also software solutions, such as emotions, distortion, and pulse detection, rotational challenges, etc. The point is no one existing access management system does not combine all those solutions in a way that would provide users with both security and convenience.

But it has to be known that such an approach considerably limits biometrics’ application. It also creates specific obligations on users and narrows down the list of compatible devices.

Biometrics in the way it works now can not be one-size-fits-all-solution. Existing systems have to be improved while searching a troublefree solution that will activate all the technology’s capacity making using biometrics ultimately secure.

At the moment the only way to improve biometrics access management systems is to combine it with a neural network and reliable liveness detection method. Let’s name such software solution neural-biometrics. Its feature is using a neural network that enables the system not to store any sensitive data neither on devices nor servers. A neural network transforms a user’s image into a code that is operated as a key.

But such a key can only be used if liveness detection is passed. That is, even if being stolen the code will not provide attackers with access to data since the code is depersonalized and encrypted so it is impossible to find the network’s owner.

In short, the company that is the first to successfully implement neural-biometrics combined with liveness detection will take a significant chunk of the security market which is growing steadily year after year. Accustomed security methods are gradually becoming outdated as new ways to override security systems appear every day.

Only access management systems that combine neural biometrics with liveness detection can provide users and enterprises with the required security level not affecting users’ experience.

And it is safe to say that neural biometrics and liveness detection are the most demanded and notable trends in the 2020th.