Security News
If you'd rather not have to enter your password every time you open the Bitwarden password manager on your mobile device, Jack Wallen shows you how to enable biometric login. Bitwarden is an open source option that does an outstanding job of keeping your passwords locked away and does so with a user interface that is easy enough for any user, regardless of experience.
In recent years biometrics have increasingly been lauded as a superior authentication solution to passwords. With a detailed enough representation of a biometric marker, it's possible to spoof it and, with the rise of deep-fake technology, it will become even easier to spoof biometrics.
Mastercard has teamed up with IDEMIA and MatchMove on their first pilot in Asia of a biometric card that uses a fingerprint to authorize transactions at in-store payment terminals. Developed by IDEMIA in accordance with Mastercard's technical and design specifications, F.CODE Easy ensures privacy and security by storing all biometric credentials on the card chip rather than a central database.
In the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic, global biometric device revenues are expected to drop 22%, to $6.6 billion, according to a report from ABI Research. The entire biometrics market will regain momentum in 2021 and is expected to reach approximately $40 billion in total revenues by 2025.
Iris ID begins shipping IrisTime, a new biometric time and attendance platform providing a fully customizable and accurate solution to meet the leading workforce management needs of small businesses to enterprise organizations worldwide. IrisTime platform is contactless, an essential consideration during the COVID-19 pandemic, said Mohammed Murad, vice president, global sales and business development, Iris ID. IrisTime is unaffected by employees wearing personal protective equipment such as gloves, masks and goggles.
iProov has launched the world's first system of global threat intelligence for biometric assurance. iSOC's threat intelligence provides forewarning of major new attacks and enables iProov to prepare and defend against them.
GlobalPlatform has released a new specification to simplify and bring greater trust to the authentication of digital services on smartphones and biometric-enabled cards. Originally developed within EMVCo, the global technical body that facilitates the worldwide interoperability and acceptance of secure payment transactions, the Secure Element Broker Interface defines a standard to make end-user authentication simpler for all applications running in a GlobalPlatform-certified Secure Element.
"Modeling allowed us to infer what structures or material features of the human body actually differentiated people," explains Joo Yong Sim, one of the ETRI researchers who conducted the study. Notably, the researchers were concerned that the accuracy of this approach could diminish with time, since the human body constantly changes its cells, matrices, and fluid content.
Biometric payment cards with an integrated fingerprint sensor make contactless payments more convenient, more secure and hygienic. Infineon Technologies and Fingerprint Cards have joined forces to enable mass deployment of this emerging solution.
Google this week announced a series of security and ease-of-use improvements for the Autofill feature in Chrome. "Biometric authentication is optional. You can choose to confirm your card with its CVC and you can also turn this feature on and off in Chrome Settings at any time," Google explains.