Biometric technologies identify an individual based on unique physical and behavioral traits, reducing the risk of identity fraud and eliminating the need for password memorization.
A unanimous decision delivered last month showed that even the grizzled justices of the Supreme Court respect the need for cell phone security, with the nation’s highest court ruling that law enforcement cannot access a suspect’s cell phone absent a search warrant.
Yet all of those personal data are often easily accessible to thieves through hacking. A Consumer Reports survey in May found 3.1 million smartphones were reported as stolen in the U.S. last year, and only 47 percent of the owners had limited access through a pass code — a feature that users cited as “annoying.”
No wonder that biometric verifications such as fingerprints, irises and even the owner’s ear lobe are becoming more popular than four-digit PINs.
“Passwords are getting easier to crack,” explains Marios Savvides, director of the CyLab Biometrics Center at Carnegie Mellon University. “And when you try to create stronger passwords, you end up writing them down — which defeats the purpose.”
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