Security becomes a crucial thing for you when it comes to digital payments. That is why banks and FinTech companies are using secure credentials for strengthening their payment security. But today, these methods have become obsolete as they have failed to prevent the innovative tricks used by cybercriminals. However, FinTech businesses have found a unique way of securing payments in the form of biometric technology.
Today, biometrics are not just limited to the electronic gadgets but it is also entered into the payments arena. Many Fintech businesses are using innovative methods of biometrics for accepting payments from customers.
If you are looking to use biometrics for securing your payments then you are at the right place. In this blog, we will give you detailed information about biometric payments along with its applications. Also, we will show you how biometrics can secure your payments.
What is biometric technology?
Biometric technology refers to the usage of biometric aspects for verifying a person’s identity. It validates and authorises a person’s identity after comparing the entered biological data with the one saved in the database. These data can be a fingerprint, voice recording or the facial image of a user.
The access is granted only if the entered data gets matched with the stored one. Otherwise, the user will be unable to access the payment data. Due to this, your payments can get safe from the unauthorised person.
The trend of using biometric systems for payment security has increased rapidly. Big corporations and governments have also started using biometric authentication for maintaining security at their headquarters, airports, military stations, etc. After understanding the meaning of biometric technology, let us see its benefits.
Which biometric technologies can be used to secure payments?
The developments in the digital payment segment have also invited some inevitable security threats such as online frauds, trojan attacks, phishing scams, data breaches, etc. However, you can prevent these frauds by integrating biometrics into your payment solutions. Let us look at some applications of biometric technologies:
Facial recognition
Facial recognition is a method of matching a human face with the picture or video stored in the database. It works by extracting the facial features from the uploaded image.
Facial recognition system captures the facial images of the user at the time of registration. These facial images are called ‘Faceprints’. After extracting a specific number of facial images, the facial recognition grants access to the users.
However, sometimes it has been seen that facial recognition systems fail to recognise the image taken from multiple angles or it encounters someone with similar facial features.
Fingerprint scanner
Fingerprint recognition is considered the most common method of biometrics security in digital payment as it uses numerous combinations of fingerprints. Also, fingerprints are the unique form of identification as they are different among the individuals. Even the fingerprints of twins are not the same.
With a fingerprint scanner, the customers will get free from entering complicated PINs or lengthy passwords for accessing payments. They just have to put their finger over the scanner and if the fingerprint matches with the database then they can access their payments. However, fingerprint scanning has its own share of challenges still many companies are using it to secure their payments.
Behavioral biometrics
Before discussing how behavioural biometrics can secure your payments let us understand its meaning first. Behavioral biometrics is a payment security method that identifies people by their actions such as gait analysis, keystroke dynamics, mouse usage patterns, signature analysis, cognitive biometrics, etc.
However, behavioural biometrics is different from the physical biometrics as it checks the behavioural patterns rather than storing the physical features. Moreover, behavioural biometrics can be combined with artificial intelligence. So when some unauthorised user logs into the account, the solution can accurately identify it.
Eye scanners
Eye scanners are of two types: iris recognition scanners and retina scanners. In recognition scanners, looks for the patterns of the colour rings presented around the pupil of the eye. While a retina scanner identifies a person by scanning it’s retina’s blood vessels. These patterns are saved in the retina scanner and then it gets compared with the pattern saved in the database.
However, one can easily pass over the retina scanning by wearing glasses or contact lenses. Also, hackers or fraudsters can be able to fool the retina scanners by using a photograph.
Advantages of using biometric payments
Biometric technology is the safest method of identifying an individual. It plays a major role in making your business safe from scammers and cybercriminals by securing your payments. Biometrics can replace keyboards with keyless entry devices. Also, it is capable of ensuring fast and reliable protected access to information. However, the advantages of biometrics are not this much limited, there are also several other benefits of using biometric security in digital payments:
Difficult to counterfeit identity
Biometric prints can’t be stolen or destroyed. Also, biometrics are very complicated to change or damage. With the increased requirement for secure verification in accessing accounts, biometric technology is becoming the best way to secure your payment solution.
Unique for each customer
Biometric technology contains higher individual identification accuracy. It mostly uses physical traits such as fingerprint, retina, face, iris, etc. And these traits are different for every individual, so it will be tough for the fraudsters to trace the user’s identity. That is why banks and companies prefer to use biometrics for their payment security.
Easily accessible
For using biometric payments, the customers just have to touch the in-built fingerprint scanners while making payment. Once the fingerprint matches the scanner copy then the payment can be completed easily. So there will be no need to remember complicated passwords or PINs.
Conclusion
Biometrics has reinvented ways of securing digital payments as consumers are increasingly using it. So we can expect that fingerprints, retina scans, facial recognition and other methods will become the norm for purchases both offline and online.
The payment businesses that offer the above-mentioned payment security measures to customers, will surely emerge as innovators, while also benefiting from reduced costs and enhanced security.
If you are interested in making a secure biometric payment solution for your business, then you can reach us at any time. Thanks for reading the blog.
