Home Safety
Nowadays, biometrics plays a big part in our everyday technology. For more than a decade, trained fingerprint experts performed this task manually as it offers a lot of advantages. Yes, we may forget our passwords, but our fingerprints will always be with us. However, are biometrics safer than passwords?
Customers like you are considering biometrics. But to give you more details about it, in this article, I will discuss to you which is safer between the passwords or biometrics. You will also learn about its downside and the things you should consider before you go for these home safety products.
Biometrics: How Is It Being Used?
Biometrics are meant to measure a person’s characteristics physically, just to verify their identity. These verifications include your physiological traits, like your eyes or fingerprints. It also includes your behavior, such as the ability to complete an authentication puzzle. Your biometric data must always be unique, collectible, and also permanent. Once the data is collected, the information is now being compared and matched in the system.
You will notice that smartphones nowadays have screens with facial recognition or fingerprints to log you in directly to your online banking accounts. Right there, little did you know that you are already using biometrics technology. Instead of recalling complicated passwords, you would prefer using a thumbprint or your face, or even your voice to process transactions. But the main issue here is that, “Are biometrics safer than passwords?” That is something you need to deal with based on your needs and abilities.
Why Biometrics Are Safer than Passwords
One of the known reasons why people prefer biometrics is because of its unique features to individuals. Compared to knowledge-based passwords, biometrics can be safer and more secure to confirm your identity. To answer your questions about “Are biometrics safer than passwords?” Here are some proven factors or evidence why biometrics offer greater security these days:
It Secures the Storage
Most of the time, it all goes down to where companies store their biometric data. When it comes to your fingerprint, like what Apple devices have, it is usually located on the chip of the device and not in the cloud. Through this, it would be impossible for hackers or fraudsters to hack your fingerprint details.
Biometrics is Not Easy to Replicate
Like biometric voiceprints, it is set to the complex mathematical algorithm, not the customer’s actual voice. So even if someone hacks a system and gets the voiceprint, the hackers will find the algorithm useless. They may try to replicate your voice, but most biometric technologies come with systems for fraud detection to verify synthesized and recorded voices.
Another thing is, fraudsters might try to replicate high-resolution photographs to manipulate a face recognition system. However, the software is always one step ahead and requires the customer to move, just like blinking. This is to prove that they are who they claim to be. In this way, it somehow answers the question, “Are biometrics safer than passwords?”
The Risk of Exposure is Limited
Let us presume that your Apple Touch technology was compromised or hacked. Just keep in mind that it is only compromised for Apple products alone. Some systems using fingerprints will not be compromised at all.
Types of Biometrics
For you to understand what biometrics are and are biometrics safer than passwords, these are the biometric data types that are being used today.
Fingertip Scanner
This kind of biometrics captures your finger’s unique pattern of valleys and ridges. There are a lot of laptops and smartphones that use this kind of technology. It serves as a password to access a file or to unlock screens.
Face Recognition
This is a kind if biometrics that measures the unique features of your face. This is through comparing and analyzing face patterns and contours. Face recognition is used in law and security enforcement as a way to verify and authenticate your identity. It is also used for gadgets such as laptops and smartphones.
Voice Recognition
It is a kind of biometrics that measures the unique waves of sound in your voice once you speak to a device. Phone bankers now use voice recognition once you call them about your bank account to verify your identity. You can also use it to give instructions to a smart speaker like Siri or Amazon’s Alexa.
Iris Recognition
With this, it identifies the unique features of your iris. The iris is the colorful area of the eye that surrounds the pupil. This kind of biometrics is not usually used in the market, even though it is widely used as a security feature.
Behavior Characteristics
With this, it identifies the unique features of your iris. The iris is the colorful area of the eye that surrounds the pupil. This kind of biometrics is not usually used in the market, even though it is widely used as a security feature.
How Does Biometrics Work?
You might be wondering about how advanced biometrics can get and how does it work. You are the one recording your biometric information, like a fingerprint. Your fingerprint info is then stored and accessed later. Other people may also put their finger on your device’s touchpad, but they are unlikely to access information on your phone. These are biometric systems to understand further.
- Software. This can be whatever that connects the computer to the hardware.
- Sensor. The sensor records your unique information and also reading it to verify.
- Computer. Whether you are using information for biometrics to access your computer or anything else, there must be a computer that stores the information for comparison.
Conclusion
There are a lot of serious privacy concerns nowadays when it comes to our information and confidential details. Even biometrics could eventually get hacked if it’s not being secured in the highest standards. However, when it comes to your concern about are biometrics safer than passwords, the answer is a big yes. Biometrics could make the world more convenient and secure.
If you just follow and have proper guidelines for security, it’s easier to protect your information, whether it is biometrics or passwords. Hopefully, you are more cautious with the information mentioned above. Protect your confidential details by obtaining biometrics because fraudsters are everywhere. They are clever enough to hack something, especially those with weak security features. Learn more about Biometrics Safes.