By Nayeem Raja, MBA-K, Roll no: 1827820

Source: mobileidworld.com, Date: 12th June,2018.

ATM PINs, OTPs and passcodes are some ways of authentication we all are familiar with. But,
PINs can be hacked and OTPs can fall into the wrong hands. So, while they are safe most of
the times, the possibility of misuse cannot be fully eliminated. This is where biometric
authentication can claim to be 100 percent secure. Here the identity of a person is determined
not by PINs or birth dates but with their biometric data. It could be a photograph of the face, a
scan of their retina and/or fingerprints, or a record of their voice. The data gathered is stored
and used to compare with the biometric data of the person requesting access. It can also be used
to compare with other people’s biometrics from the existing database. Thus, biometrics allows
a person to be authenticated based on a set of recognisable data that is unique to them and does
not change with time. The main reason why biometrics is so widely used for authentication is
that it is impossible to duplicate this data.

In a report entitled “Biometrics for Banking: Market and Technology Analysis, Adoption
Strategies and Forecasts” the market research firm predicts that by the end of 2020, 1.9 billion
bank customers around the world will be using biometrics. This is of course a good news for
vendors of biometric technologies. With this biometric data I think a day will come when with
just our face and fingerprint we might withdraw money from ATMs. As the world is becoming
more and more digital, the number of passwords people have to manage is also become a
serious problem. Thus, this biometric technology will simply the authentication process.