Stolen Credentials have become one of the rising causes of data breaches worldwide and have called for a stricter user verification procedure for Identity and Access Management to prevent unauthorized user access. Multiple factors authentication (MFA), requiring users to provide more than one piece of evidence for identification, has grown tremendously, and biometrics has become one of those important authentication factors. The digital world has grown in adopting different biometrics Methods, including iris, voice, and fingerprint. In the last decade, implementing Biometric Authentication has found better adoption in smart devices, opening the niche for threat actors, vulnerabilities, and flaws.Â
Things You Should Know About Biometrics
According to Homeland Security, Biometrics encompass distinctive physical traits, such as fingerprints, employed for automated identification. Biometric security utilizes these features for access control due to their high precision and resistance to forgery. This security method is employed to authenticate or verify an individual before granting access to sensitive resources, which may pertain to personal, governmental, or professional domains.
The concealment of biometrics can be challenging, as individuals inevitably leave fingerprints wherever they go, and concealing one’s face in public is atypical. Historically, China introduced fingerprinting during a specific period, focusing on capturing the fingerprints of merchants and their offspring for unique identification. Over time, fingerprinting has progressed significantly. Fingerprint recognition is a leading and highly sophisticated global biometric authentication solution enjoying widespread popularity and historical significance.
Advantages Of Biometric Security
Due to unique differences requiring sophisticated tools, highly distinct data replication, and computation, hacking biometrics is highly difficult, which makes them more reliable for access control. Accessing resources using biometric methods is easier than user and password authentication. You can forget your username and password but can’t do the same with your fingerprint, voice, or face except in the case of medical situations such as accidents.
Challenges Of Biometric Security
Access Denial and Data Security
Biometric verification may encounter challenges as the human body adapts to environmental conditions. The precision of biometric systems might lead to exasperating endeavours in authenticating identity. Biometric systems employ centralized and decentralized storage, presenting potential vulnerabilities to attacks by threat actors, consequently elevating the risk of identity theft.
Revocability and Spoofing
Biometrics offer convenient access, yet unlike passwords and PINs, they are not easily alterable if compromised. Compromised biometric data could assist an attacker in deceiving the biometric system. Additionally, there is the potential to exploit fake identities, such as employing a high-quality image of the legitimate owner, to gain unauthorized access.
How Can AI Improve Biometric Security
Continuous Learning, Feature Extraction and Matching
Biometric systems can analyze and adapt features as individuals undergo natural life changes. Facial recognition serves as an illustration; the system can dynamically adjust to these changes, guaranteeing seamless and uninterrupted access. Challenges like access denial or mismatches occurred in the era before AI due to identity failure resulting from ageing or health issues. AI algorithms address this by efficiently extracting key features from biometric data, facilitating swift identification.
Anti-Spoofing Measures and Multi-Modal Biometrics
AI introduces an additional security layer to the biometric system, enabling the differentiation between genuine biometric samples and fraudulent ones. Deceiving the system with high-quality images or recordings has become more intricate, making it challenging for threat actors to succeed in their attacks. This biometric system fortifies security by fusing various biometrics, eliminating a singular point of failure and ensuring uninterrupted availability. This implies that if a specific biometric, such as a fingerprint, fails to provide access, alternative methods like facial recognition can assist the user.
Recent Advancements In Biometric Security
Before the introduction of liveness detection techniques, the vulnerability of biometric systems to deception existed through the use of high-quality images. However, these techniques can now discern between authentic human presence and fabricated biometric data, preventing threat actors from exploiting deep-faked or high-quality images to gain unauthorized access. As biometric deployment expands and deep learning contributes to extensive physiological and behavioural databases, AI is crucial in developing authentication systems that continuously update and refine recognition models by integrating new training data.
This adaptability empowers the customization and specialization of biometric matching, presentation attack detection, and behavioural analysis for individual users. The commitment to adaptability ensures the resilience of biometric security against evolving fraud tactics. Additionally, deep neural networks have heightened the precision of biometric recognition systems by adeptly managing large datasets and extracting intricate features, thereby enhancing reliability and minimizing the risks of false positives and false negatives.
The feasibility of deploying AI-driven biometric security on edge devices, such as smartphones, has increased, bringing about heightened convenience, safety, and accessibility across various platforms. A recent development involves integrating blockchain technology into biometric systems to enhance the storage and verification of biometric data. Embracing a zero-trust approach ensures continuous authentication for even authorized users, effectively mitigating the risk of unauthorized access.
Conclusion
The fusion of AI with biometric security has made significant strides in tackling security challenges, providing a precise and resilient method for verifying individual identities. Nevertheless, responsible and ethical utilization of this technology is crucial, ensuring a delicate equilibrium between security and privacy. Ongoing advancements in AI and biometrics are continually reshaping the security landscape, heralding a future characterized by heightened security and convenience. Staying abreast of the latest developments and prudently adopting these innovations is imperative to navigate this evolving field.
