Cybersecurity has become a prime factor in businesses today. Increasing cyber-attacks and cyber-threats have alerted most of the businesses and enterprises to choose more secure technologies and ways to conduct digital business transactions. App security has also gained traction, with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) at a vigil, data privacy, and data security that has gained prime attraction.
There are several ways to ensure end-to-end encryption of application to achieve data security in applications. Over the years the application gateways for users to access data have changed phases and innovative techniques to mitigate data violations and privacy. Technologies like password protection, pattern locks, and others have now become secondary to a new breed of authentication methods induced to secure applications.
1. Fingerprint Scan Authentication:
Capacitive Fingerprint Scanners
Most of the fingerprint scanners used today are capacitive and as the name suggests, it is based on a capacitor. It was the first biometric authentication to appear on mainstream smartphones. Capacitive fingerprint scanners do not capture the image of a fingerprint rather than that it uses arrays of tiny capacitor circuits to collect data about the fingerprint.
Details of a fingerprint can be tracked by capacitors by storage of electrical charge, through connection with the conductive plates on the surface of the scanner. The charge stored in the capacitor will be charged once, you put your finger on the surface in connection with surface plates. The air gap will leave the charge at the capacitor relatively uncharged and an op-amp integrator circuit will track all the changes recorded by analog-to-digital convertor.
Optical Fingerprint Scanners:
This is reference-based technology with an image capture of the fingerprint and then a comparison of the same with a reference image. A phosphorous coated surface is provided in a sensor, which illuminates the finger from beneath and the reflected light is captured after passing through the phosphor screen on a solid-state sensor or a charge couple display sensor.
The surface of the sensor is made of a transparent material such as glass, which can have scratches that can reduce the quality of images captured of the fingerprint. Dirty finger surface can also affect the work efficiency of the sensor. Due to some accidents or any other reason, the fingerprint can be damaged rendering lower quality images of fingerprint. Fraudulent activities using a copy of the fingerprint image are easy, which is not present in the capacitive fingerprint scanners.
Ultrasonic fingerprint sensors:
The use of ultrasonic waves is done by ultrasonic fingerprint sensors to create an image of the fingerprint. Ultrasonic sensors induce high accuracy by sound waves generated by piezoelectric transducers. Each fingerprint has several ridges and valleys that reflect the ultrasonic sound waves differently, which is captured to create an image of fingerprint. Biggest advantage in the ultrasonic fingerprint sensor is even if the fingerprint is damaged or faded, the quality of image for authentication remains the same.
2. Iris Scanning:
Iris scanning uses two types of digital cameras to capture the image of your iris and then compare it with the enrolled image to authenticate the access. Two types of cameras are visible digital cameras and infrared cameras. This produces a high-contrast picture of a person’s pupil and infrared light gives an image of a person’s pupil to be dark, isolating iris from the pupil.
Whenever a person looks into an iris scanner, a system automatically focuses the camera or a mirror or audible feedback to make sure that the person is in an exact position. The eye position while capturing its image is nearly 3-10 inches from the camera. Iris scanners induce a high sense of accuracy as there is no change in basic structure to a person's iris. Even blind people with their iris intact can use iris scanners and spectacles or lenses don't hinder the performance of iris scanners.
3. Facial Recognition:
One of the most prolific technology, when it comes to authentication technologies is facial recognition authentication systems. It is now being part of the most popular smartphones in the market. It is an easy, fast and secure form of app security. Businesses and application developers are hiring mobile app developers, who can design the applications with interfaces integrated with facial recognition technologies.
If the facial recognition system is not three dimensional then there are chances of fraudulent attacks using an image of the user and this is a drastic drawback. The system performs facial recognition by use of biometric to map facial features from photos or videos. This image is compared with an already enrolled image stored in large databases of system.
Wrapping Up:
The realm of authentication technologies is growing with new innovations and highly secure tools to make access to the data more sophisticated and safe. Biometric authentication technologies are improving day by day with new sensors and algorithms designed to help reduce false acceptance rates and block attempts at non-secure data access by end-users. Though, biometrics need to understand the convenience and environmental conditions to make the system user-friendly and make the unlocking process to application and devices more rapid and secure.
Enterprises and businesses on a global scale need to tap into new avenues and consider investment to create more robust authentication systems for safe and secure access. With such advanced technologies, they can have the trust of consumers, which can help in generating sales and increase business growth. We have already seen high usage of biometrics at workplaces. But, the mobile-first era has made the security of devices and apps an important matter at hand
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