Everyone prefers fingerprint instead of Pincode to unlock their phones because it is easy, convenient and who’s gonna type the pin every time, just put your finger, and boom, the phone will unlock. Isn’t this what you think? However, Biometric authentication including fingerprint identification, iris, and retina, facial recognition, gait, or voice is as not secure as u think.
Biometric seems secure because you’re the only one with your ears, eyes, and fingerprint. But that doesn’t necessarily make it more secure than passwords. A password is inherently private because you are the only one who knows it. Of course, hackers can acquire it by brute force attacks or phishing, but generally, people can’t access it. On the other hand, biometrics are inherently public.
Think about it: your ears, eyes, and face are exposed. You reveal your eyes whenever you look at things. With fingerprint recognition, you leave fingerprints everywhere you go. With voice recognition, someone is recording your voice. Essentially, there’s easy access to all these identifiers
Think about it: your ears, eyes, and face are exposed. You reveal your eyes whenever you look at things. With fingerprint recognition, you leave fingerprints everywhere you go. With voice recognition, someone is recording your voice. Essentially, there’s easy access to all these identifiers
Why Biometric isn’t safe?
If a hacker wanted to access a system that was protected by a fingerprint or face scanner, there are a number of ways they could do it:
- Your fingerprint or face scan (template data) stored in the database could be replaced by a hacker to gain unauthorized access to a system
- A physical copy or spoof of your fingerprint or face could be created from the stored template data (with play doh, for example) to gain unauthorized access to a system
- Stolen template data could be reused to gain unauthorized access to a system
- Stolen template data could be used by a hacker to unlawfully track an individual from one system to another.
As we endeavor to improve security for our digital devices, we are finding ways that seem foolproof but are far from it. Fingerprint tech seems like a great option, but it is risky.
The great thing is that we have a choice. When you purchase your next smartphone, go with the security option that you feel is most secure – and then keep track of your phone.
