Harris KhanBiometrics used to be a wild idea found in science fiction. Now, it has become a reality. The biometrics industry is expected to boom over the next decade, with some analysts believing it could be worth around $70 billion by 2025. It will render passwords obsolete, as this outdated method of online security has already been exposed as weak. It could also become more widespread in offline security protocols, such as airport immigration.
What are the Main Advantages of Biometrics?
You may be wondering, what is biometrics? It’s a technology that uses a part of the human body for authentication. Biometrics have numerous advantages in the real world, but the most striking and exciting application is in the replacement of online passwords. As the online world has expanded massively in scale, the average user has more than 100 passwords. Because it can be hard to remember them, many people reuse the same passwords at different sites and open themselves up to security breaches. Indeed, more than 50 percent of people use the same password across multiple accounts. Biometrics completely eradicate the need for anyone to remember passwords. All you need to do is show your face or fingerprint to a reader to be able to securely and easily log in to a device or site. This means that hackers will find it nigh on impossible to steal information, as they won’t be able to crack passwords or exploit data leaks at other sites.
Current Security Protocols are Risky
It is fair to say that most internet users are aware that passwords are risky, but there are few alternative options currently available. This is supported by research that found that seven out of ten people know the consequences of bad passwords and password breaches. There are some concerning statistics surrounding the current online security measures. For example, 57 percent of internet users that have been scammed in phishing attacks still haven’t changed their passwords. This same proportion of users has shared that they would prefer a passwordless method of logging onto sites, highlighting how the internet community is crying out for biometrics to become ubiquitous.
Where Else Can Biometrics be Used?
The reason why the projections for the biometrics industry are so high is that the technology can be applied in so many different fields. Improving online security protocols may be the biggest step forward initially, but face and fingerprint scanners could also soon be seen more frequently in physical locations for identification and authentication purposes. For example, biometrics have become commonplace in airports around the world, with passengers now having to scan in and out of countries. This helps immigration keep track of people more easily and means that it’s hard for people to cross borders illegally. It could also be used for home security, and to quickly check whether people have insurance before they are admitted to the hospital.
Current security protocols online are inefficient and put users at risk of cyber-attacks. Biometrics will solve a lot of these problems and make life difficult for hackers. The technology will also have other real-world applications that will make things such as immigration run much more smoothly.
