Still, organisations across multiple sectors are exploring the use of several types of biometric technologies. The Australian Passport Office last November issued a tender for new biometrics technologies.It looks like people are starting to come to grips with the "compared to what?" and "perfect vs. good" arguments we've been making here for a while now.
The organisation has been using facial recognition for its passport production process since 2005.
In 2012, ANZ Bank said it was exploring using fingerprint recognition technology to replace traditional PIN codes.
Parker said there an interesting discussion under way now about how secure a transaction has to be and how much organisations and consumers are you willing to pay for a certain level of security.
"If you're protecting the front door or the control panel of a nuclear arsenal, you probably want to spend a lot of money on security to make sure it's top grade and nobody can get through it.
We'd also suggest a revised headline for the article linked above: "Fingerprints not Convenient Enough for Large Customers." We'd agree with that one.
As it stands now, biometrics algorithm developers and large system vendors aren't really finding much success at supporting customers for whom ID management isn't their primary business. And nearly all organizations for whom ID management is their primary business are government entities. This goes some distance toward explaining why the private market for biometrics has been slow to develop.
It's also the challenge we have built SecurLinx to meet. In this example, banks aren't in the ID business; they're in the money business, but they do have to get ID right — or at least predictably wrong — in order to do their job. Magnetic stripes, sixteen digit numbers and passwords aren't great, but they are predictable. They are convenient at an affordable cost.
Biometrics companies must deliver solutions to customers that can add security and at least come close to the convenience of the systems they seek to replace.
