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What do I think of biometric authentication?

  Biometric authentication, without a doubt, makes a user’s life inherently easier. Due to the fact that the data collected and used to authenticate an individual relies on their physiological or behavioral characteristics, they are not expected to memorize difficult and long passwords. Biometric authentication blows traditional security methods out of the water, and it still has room for development. Although I do think biometric authentication has some negative factors, those factors can be dealt with, and newer, safer methods can be developed in order to collect biometric data.

What is the current use of biometric authentication?

  There are many possible ways that biometric authentication can be used. For example, all Apple iPhones include a touchID or faceID feature for authenticating the user’s identity. The user can login to their phone using just a fingertip or their face. Biometric authentication can also be used to identity criminals and victims in cases. Airports and banks also use this method of security in order to identify and authenticate individuals.

What are the limitations of biometric authentication?

  Although biometric data may be hard to replicate, it is not necessarily impossible. There are ways where an attacker can still falsely identify themselves as the user by capturing high-resolution pictures of the user’s face or iris. The attacker can also sample the user’s fingertip on surfaces they have touched, as well as take a recording of the user’s voice. Due to the development of AI, it has been made possible to create an extremely close replica of an individual’s face. All of these can lead to false authentication.

What are the benefits of biometric authentication?

  Biometric authentication allows the user to quickly and easily identify themselves as who they say they are using physiological or behavioral characteristics. The data collected is difficult to replicate and easy to memorize for the user. Some examples may include: fingertip, facial, iris, or voice recognition.