Every day it seems a new data security breach has occurred, a new “cyber hack” is in the news…making us run to our phones, computers, bank accounts, you name it, to see if we could be the “one” affected. As a result, more and more online transactions, websites, financial institutions, for work or personal, require longer and more complicated login user names and passwords. I can barely remember my name as it is….let alone the now at least 25 unique user names and passwords I have to keep in a notebook. I have security fatigue!
Defined by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), security fatigue is a weariness or reluctance to deal with computer security, leading to feelings of resignation and loss of control. “These reactions can lead to avoiding decisions, choosing the easiest option among alternatives, making decisions influenced by immediate motivations, behaving impulsively, and failing to follow security rules”…leading to increased risk which the hackers are taking full advantage of daily.
Help is on the way: the next cybersecurity fix for this username/password conundrum? Biometrics.
Biometrics is the measurement and statistical analysis of an individual’s physical and behavior characteristics. The Biometrics technology is often used to verify personal identity. Physiological characteristics include: fingerprints, face, and/or hand recognitions and an example of a behavioral characteristic is voice recognition.
Most commonly, fingerprint recognition is currently utilized by cell phones in order to pay for purchases with credit card information, pay for applications and/ or login to your bank but even fingerprints have been a target for cyber hacks–see the Office of Personnel Management, which had 5.6 million fingerprints stolen in 2015.
Stay tuned as it looks like we are moving into facial recognition–the “pay-by-selfie” next generation. Talk about eagle eye.