The Future of Authentication and Security
March 5th, 2018 by admin
Since the beginning of time, there have been people trying to get access to and/or take things that don’t belong to them. A lock and key, a hiding spot with a map, or armed guards were the ways we used to make sure that only the intended individuals had access. Today we have passwords, fingerprints, and photo IDs. But what about tomorrow? We look at the future of authentication. If we try and think of the perfect authentication tool, what does it look like? Authentication needs to be reliable when granting access to specific individuals. Authentication should be convenient if possible, but at the very least practical (when extreme security measures do need to be taken). Lastly, authentication should be secure, and not easily bypassed. Keeping these attributes in mind, it’s easy to see why we have moved away from treasure maps and physical deeds for the most part. They have several fatal flaws that photo IDs and social security numbers were designed to remedy, namely that they can be lost, stolen or destroyed and are not always easily accessible. These new tools have helped security immensely, unfortunately, even the best authentication tools we have today are far from perfect. Passwords can be hacked, ID’s can be stolen and biometrics aren’t always reliable. But what does the future look like? Perhaps it is in biometrics, or a combination of the three. Biometric Authentication uses any physical, biological trait of an individual to uniquely identify them from other individuals. From there, we can choose to allow or deny access. The main biometric authenticators you’ve probably heard of are fingerprints, irises, faces, and DNA. Technology designed to quickly scan irises, faces, and fingerprints have not always been reliable, and DNA analysis is too time consuming to be realistically considered for authentication in the near future. However, the quicker biometric options are getting more reliable and are in widespread use in tandem with passwords. Soon, they may be reliable enough to forgo the password altogether. Of all the biometric authentication options, facial recognition is the buzziest today. In China, Face++ has created software with as much as 99.50% recognition reliability, and the technology is being used by apps to replace passwords or even authenticate payments. The iPhone X has made huge leaps and bounds by bringing facial recognition to the public audience. With facial recognition technology improving so quickly, it’s easy to imagine it becoming a widespread method of authentication. Facial recognition is quickly coming together with all the attributes that a great authentication tool should have. It’s fast and convenient, even more so than a password, and it’s quickly becoming at least as reliable and secure. In the future, it will likely be even more secure than a password, since a face cannot be easily hacked or stolen. For now, it is probably best used as additional security to your password or for low value social media accounts and the like. It may be some years before I would trust facial recognition with much more than that. There is a lot to know about authentication and the related, trending tech. Now you know a bit more! We hope this has been entertaining or insightful, feel free to send us a message or to take a look at our related posts. -Kender OstlundPosted in: Protection, Security, Technology