Planet Biometrics took time out to speak to Jason Tooley, chief revenue officer at Veridium, about digital ID and the adoption of biometric authentication solutions.What held back biometric adoption in the past and how is that changing?The mass consumer adoption of smartphones is setting a new precedent for biometric adoption, which began with the launch of the iPhone 5S's fingerprint scanner in 2013. Now, as physical stores, banks and cash machines continue to disappear from our high streets, there is a growing shift towards customers leveraging mobile phones to conduct activity – whether it be shopping, banking or booking services.The business landscape, however, has struggled to keep pace with the rate of innovation and digital disruption. Certain industries have been slow in their cloud adoption, such as financial services, which battles with decades of legacy IT systems. A failure to make this cloud transition has hindered biometric adoption in the past, as without the right infrastructure in place it is difficult to implement the technology.However, this has been opened up by services such as the Amazon Web Services marketplace, which offer a range of cloud and other digital applications through a simple digital platform. Making the cloud transition via these networks, where the cloud is effectively brought to you, renders the process far quicker and frictionless.Through services such as AWS, companies can much more easily integrate biometric authentication platforms. The greater computing power of cloud-based software, brings a host of other benefits to organisations and customers. Having data centralised through the cloud avoids the latency issues that come from having computing tasks handled from afar, and permits the on-demand availability of resources. This allows a more seamless digital experience to be created, to meet the evolving needs of customers. Simultaneously, businesses can gain cost and time efficiencies that translate into more effective workload management, increased flexibility and ultimately productivity.How are Veridium solutions addressing mobile ID trends?Gartner predicts that by 2022, 70 per cent of organisations will be using biometric authentication for employees via smartphone apps, which is a huge rise from less than five per cent in 2018[1]. Veridium helps companies adopt mobile multi factor solutions – including digital fingerprint, our recently launched facial recognition vFace and behavioural intelligence – replacing expensive hardware with a frictionless app.Veridium's vFace enables facial recognition on all mobile devices with a front facing camera (2MP or above), meaning older or less expensive devices without biometric sensor technology built in can be converted into a universally available robust security solution.Nearly half of consumers now use and value the convenience of mobile banking, meaning online fraud has skyrocketed. Veridium helps firms stem this tide through implementing an authentication strategy focusing on mobile possession, multi-modal biometrics, combined with innovative behavioural and location intelligence. This will also help compliance with new regulations such as PSD2 Strong Customer Authentication, which is applied to many different areas when transacting online. The unprecedented rise of app-based workers and the gig economy is also calling for secure mobile IDs. Veridium believe these changing market dynamics requires overhauling the definition of 'strong authentication'.Veridium is confident mobile-first authentication strategies, for consumers and employees alike, will become the norm as we witness device possession emerge as a key factor. Native biometric technology will become present in 90 per cent of smartphones by 2024,[2] therefore enterprises would see the most value in integrating a mobile multi factor strategy now to increase security and provide a seamless user experience. Mobile ID is being viewed as a key business differentiator, which Veridium is enabling companies to prioritise to avoid customer churn to market disruptors.”Do you think that behavioural will increasingly take more market share in biometrics?Considering global e-commerce fraud is projected to cost $130 billion by 2023[3], behavioural biometrics have never been so crucial. This issue has been amplified by artificial intelligence powered 'deepfake' threats which imitate characteristics such as voice, and are anticipated to cost businesses more than $250 million in identity fraud scams this year.Integrating innovative behavioural biometric authentication is widely being regarded as the final frontier in security. It uses artificial intelligence to identify unique mannerisms such as gait, or patterns of behaviour such as the time of day an app is accessed, as well as location. These attributes are practically impossible to spoof, therefore providing a solution to such advanced threats.Furthermore, the consumer preference for a seamless user experience will mean behavioural biometrics become more and more important. Today's customer expects a quick and convenient authentication process as part of their digital experience, and providing this will go a long way towards hitting customer satisfaction targets.”Will frictionless authentication become increasingly crucial for Digital ID?Creating a frictionless authentication process through removing the password will be increasingly vital for digital ID. On top of an enhanced user experience, companies and consumers alike are recognising the improved security and efficiency associated with transitioning to passwordless. Passwords account for over 80 per cent of data breaches[4], with resets costing firms a staggering $1.9 million a year[5]. Millions of people use the same password for multiple logins, leaving valuable personal data at risk. In addition, employees must remember an average of 27 passwords[6], which on top of costing businesses $100 per user per year to manage resets, also significantly decreases productivity. As a result, more and more organisations are turning towards biometrics to authenticate digital identities and mitigate increasingly sophisticated cyber threats, whilst creating a seamless user experience. Gartner forecasts that by 2022, 60 per cent of businesses will have cut their reliance on passwords by half[7].”
Veridium talks mobile identity and biometrics
