Biometrics – stand alone or as part of a hybrid solution – have long been considered the gold standard in authentication technologies and with COVID-19 pressing users towards touchless applications, this is unlikely to change.
EVERY person is unique in multiple ways – fingerprints, facial structure, the way they walk, the way they talk, the pattern of their blood vessels. These fundamental differences can be used by access control systems to create a ‘something you are’ authentication method that is unique, as well as being consistent over time.
There are advantages not only in terms of security levels and touchless reads – biometrics requires no cards authentication credentials cannot be lost, there are no passwords that might be shared, and no ongoing hardware costs. In some cases, it’s possible for a user’s smart device to be employed as a credential, which has advantages in certain applications.
According to Gallagher’s Steve Bell, while biometrics can be secure there’s more to think about when it comes to authentication procedures than one type of technology.
“Authentication is the process to prove that the person or machine that is seeking access, is the same person or machine that was initially granted permission to have that privilege in the first place,” Bell explains.
“Multi-factor authentication provides the gold standard for best security and a lower chance of a false accept. Multi-factor authentication requires 2 different types of authentications with the options of:
* Something you have: often a token with a cryptographic key for authentication
* Something you know: a password or PIN number
* Something you are: biometric.
“This means the gold standard will be a multi-factor authentication and often one of those factors is a biometric.”
When it comes to which biometric technology, or technology combination, is the most secure, Bell argues that simulation is the greatest threat.
“The weakness in biometric technology is the ability to simulate another person’s biometric,” he says. “There have been several examples of someone obtaining a fingerprint image from a glass and preparing it appropriately to fool the fingerprint reader and gain access. With facial recognition, it can be as easy as holding up a photograph to the facial recognition camera. So, it’s less about the actual biometric type that is used, and more about how well the manufacturer has implemented the reader and the liveness detection that is required.”
Another issue for end users is read speed, which in busy applications has caused delays in the past.
“These days, the read speed is less about the type of biometrics, and more about the quality of the manufacturer’s solution,” Bell explains. “The quality of the integration of a biometric solution into an access control system or other software that requires a person to be authenticated, is also a factor for performance. Gallagher has ensured that our biometric integration partners, IDEMIA and Invixium, have invested in producing a high performing solution. It’s important for customers to undergo their due diligence when selecting a biometric solution and consider using well-known and respected brands.”
Something else security managers and security integrators should have front of mind at the moment is the COVID-19 pandemic, which continues to morph and is likely to challenge security operations for years to come. On that score, which biometrics technologies are safest in terms of COVID-19 prevention becomes a key consideration. However, according to Bell, even before COVID-19, there were many countries requesting contactless biometrics.
“My experience with Turkey, South Africa, and the wider Middle Eastern region, is there has been a desire for touchless biometrics for several years,” he says. “COVID-19 will continue to extend that desire to all markets of biometric access control.”
Has the time of facial recognition as an authentication method arrived, in Bell’s opinion?
“High security sites, such as airports, require 2-factor authentication, with facial recognition being one of them. In medium to low security situations, single factor facial recognition can be a great option. An example of this is the turnstiles leading to the lift lobby of a high-rise office building. Facial recognition can achieve good throughput and has the reassurance that there is generally another access control point at the entry to the actual offices.”
When it comes to the future of biometrics – which technologies does Bell feel will prevail?
“Many of the smart devices we see today implement very high levels of security for the storage of biometric authenticators,” he says. “The privacy of these solutions is great, as they maintain the biometric identifier information on the smart device. My feeling is that these smart devices will be one of the primary authentication use cases in the future.”
Over at Nirovision, Jason Allan sees biometrics as offering significant benefits.
“We believe any authentication method is greatly enhanced when biometric credentials are added to the mix, because they rely on the right person with the right access being present, whereas cards, mobile devices and pin codes can be easily shared, stolen or hacked,” he explains.
“Of all biometrics, facial recognition provides accurate identification while being the least intrusive alternative, and fully touch-less. Furthermore, with facial recognition, a workplace has video evidence of who accessed any area, as opposed to standalone time logs that don’t tell the full story.
“Due to its touchless nature, facial recognition is more important than ever in the fight to keep workplaces open and workers safe. Whether it’s used for visitor management, worker time & attendance, temperature checks or access control, the benefits are clear: it can fully automate identification, health and compliance checks, alert upon inconsistencies or problems, and create detailed logs and reports that can be used for contact tracing and auditing purposes.”
When it comes to the future of biometrics, Allen argues that what appeals to end users is safety and simplicity.
“When used safely, facial recognition technology can make our lives safer and simpler: in addition to automating a generally manual process, facial recognition contributes to more accurate identification and is conveniently unobtrusive,” he explains.
Meanwhile, Jackie Han of Hills says the big advantage of biometrics is that they are a unique authenticator.
“We all have a unique biometric signature which unlike credit cards or passwords can’t be copied,” Han says. “This makes biometrics a safe authentication method in the access control market that continues to show growth.
“For instance, face recognition technology is extremely difficult to copy and is unique to each individual. The latest face recognition algorithms are so accurate that even photos, dynamic video and other image forms of counterfeit will not authenticate and with accuracy rates of up to 99.5 per cent.”
According to Han, face recognition is made more appealing by the need for low-touch COVID-safe environments.
“Face recognition complies with both non-contact authentication and social distancing, 2 key factors in COVID prevention,” says Han. “In the case of Dahua, face recognition solutions can accurately detect faces within range of 0.3m to 1.5m, and also supports mask detection, so even if you are wearing a mask a system can authenticate you without any need to contact a common surface, which helps prevent the spread of COVID.”
“In recent years, non-contact biometrics such as facial recognition technology have become more and more widely accepted. The onset of the epidemic has made people more aware of the importance of non-contact identification methods for public safety, with some countries and cities restricting or prohibiting the use of fingerprint identification.”
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