What’s a leading indicator that an organization may invest in biometric authentication? It turns out that it’s a data breach.
According to a new report from the market research firm Vanson Bourne, based on a survey of 200 senior IT administrators (commissioned by multifactor authentication provider Veridium) found that 63 percent of respondents whose companies experienced a data breach were either currently implementing biometric authentication or planning to. The research found that 81 percent of IT decision-makers think biometric authentication is superior to passwords.
Additional findings from the survey include:
It could be time for biometrics to make headway in the enterprise. In a similar survey from the University of Texas, which included responses from 1,000 U.S. consumers, 58 percent of respondents said that they feel very comfortable with fingerprint scanning, while only a third reported feeling very comfortable with any other biometric type. Survey respondents were most unsure about facial recognition technology, with 13 percent feeling “not at all comfortable, with that method.
The researchers at Austin concluded that the growth of biometrics across verticals will continue. Ninety-two percent of respondents reported either feeling the same, or increased, level of comfort using biometrics as they did two years ago. Only 8 percent grew less comfortable.
Just last week, HSBC announced corporate customers can now log into mobile banking apps with use facial recognition. In a press release, the bank said business clients can use Face ID service in 24 countries to access HSBCnet, the bank’s commercial banking mobile app.
I’ve been saying for some time that authentication will continue to develop in new ways, largely due to the success of Apple Face ID. Expect more facial recognition biometrics to biometrics that identify people on-the-fly based on their voice, how they type, how they walk, and more.
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George V. Hulme is an internationally recognized information security and business technology writer. For more than 20 years Hulme has written about business, technology, and IT security topics. From March 2000 through March 2005, as senior editor at InformationWeek magazine, he covered the IT security and homeland security beats. His work has appeared in CSOOnline, ComputerWorld, Network Computing, Government Computer News, Network World, San Francisco Examiner, TechWeb, VARBusiness, and dozens of other technology publications.
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