The massive amounts of data we post to the internet are becoming increasingly vulnerable as the world continues its relentless march toward digitizing everything. According to Ping Identity, the number of Gen Zs who fell victim to online scams increased by 123% in the three years leading up to 2022. Biometric data is being used for various purposes, with more than 75% of Americans using biometric technology. Face authentication is already used by 38% of people to access their mobile banking app. 37% of those over the age of 40 believe they are safer using biometrics for security than they were before the pandemic. At the moment, personal information about customers is stored on hundreds or even thousands of servers located worldwide. As a result, there has been an increase in identity theft cases, and fraudulent activities are undertaken online.
Passwords and PINs are both inconvenient to use, and there is no guarantee that they will provide adequate security. Using readily cracked or guessed passwords is the primary cause of increased data and security breaches. We keep track of our passwords and PINs by using the same password for multiple accounts, writing them down on post-it notes, or keeping a spreadsheet with all our different account passwords and PINs. This is especially useful for those of us with numerous accounts. All these factors make life more difficult for us while making it easier for criminals to commit cybercrime.
Because of these security flaws, we require a more robust user authentication method to keep our identities confidential and safe from prying eyes. The use of biometrics is a brilliant solution to this problem. As a result, biometric data can be used to protect customers from the increasing amount of fraud that occurs online.
Biometrics, which are used as identification methods in businesses worldwide, is gaining a stronger foothold in security. Individuals can be validated and identified using biometrics because of their unique behavioral or physiological characteristics, such as fingerprints and irises.
For example, 84% of consumers in the UK believe that it’s important to verify their identity when opening a financial account. Nearly a third of the population agreed that this should be done when opening an account for a gambling or gaming site. Regarding gambling, it’s also crucial to only register and share personal details with reliable, legitimate sites. Find more info on what to look out for to stay safe.
How Can Biometrics Be Used To Prevent Online Transaction Fraud?
Fingerprints and irises are both unique to each individual, making copying or stealing them extremely difficult, if not impossible. As a result, implementing biometric modalities such as fingerprint and iris scanning will aid in the prevention of data and security breaches. Thanks to biometrics, consumers will no longer need to create and remember complex passwords for each of their online accounts. Instead, their biometric is now used as a password.
Biometrics is now used primarily to combat cybercrime by law enforcement agencies and experts. When a user enrolls in a biometric system, only a digital representation of the biometric sample is saved as a template.
A biometric algorithm chooses the distinguishing features of each fingerprint, encrypts it, and saves it as a template. Because it is a one-way algorithm, the original image cannot be reconstructed or copied. Biometrics provides the highest level of privacy and ensures that the user’s fingerprints will not be used for anything other than identification.
Biometrics are less vulnerable to fraud and hacking because they identify individuals with far greater accuracy than passwords. Furthermore, unlike passwords, biometrics cannot be shared, forgotten, or transferred.
Conclusion
The biometrics systems are not perfect yet. For one, capturing the user’s biometric information and confirming their identity is time-consuming. It is also expensive to do so. One issue that has come to light is that fingerprint scanners do not always recognize your prints if your hands are sweaty.
Despite various challenges, global biometric systems generated approximately 21.8 billion US dollars in 2018, while mobile biometric technologies generated slightly more than 20 billion. By 2022, the market is expected to grow by another $10 billion. The use of biometrics in everyday life will increase in the future, improving the safety and security of the consumer’s private information and identification.
