New report discusses cybersecurity vulnerabilities of biometrics systems

ABI Research announced that its Biometric Technologies and Applications Research division has published a new report entitled ‘Biometric Data Security’, which exposes the cybersecurity vulnerabilities of biometric systems.

The report details the many security flaws of biometric systems, including untrusted user interface and malware for the consumer segment, compromised USB peripherals, and encryption for the enterprise sector.

In the report, ABI Research analysts explore these flaws and recommend both conceptual and technical security implementations.

“Security surrounding biometric data is the primary concern for vendors wishing to invest in the technology,” said Dimitrios Pavlakis, research analyst at ABI Research. “However, biometric vendors are just starting to pay more attention to the complexities of biometric data and implement new security protocols in this US$26 billion industry.”

As the report points out, the major growth points for the biometrics industry are the same vulnerable areas that biometric companies must safeguard against cyber attackers.

These include fingerprint technologies on the consumer segment, BYOD initiatives in the enterprise, and access control solutions in both governmental and corporate environments.

The research states that some of the main concerns for biometric system integrators for the future will include integrating data security protocols, monitoring for incoming threats and establishing physical and logical integrity of the system.

Analysts recommend that administrators use a range of tools — including data assurance, privacy issues, policy conflicts, encryption, fuzzy extractors, biocryptography, and template protection — to maintain data security within biometric systems.

In addition, analysis contains cost-effective ways of template protection, end-to-end data accountability through system synergy, and BYOD security pitfalls.

The report also highlights key vendor solutions, including Samsung’s BYOD KNOX, HID’s SDK ActivClient, ARM TrustZone’s TEE isolation solution, and Precise Biometrics’ smartphone security sleeves.

Previously reported, ABI Research released new research from its Biometric Technologies and Applications Research Service which forecasts that fingerprint sensors for smartphones are expected to reach 1 billion shipments by 2020, marking a 17% CAGR increase.

Article Topics

ABI Research  |  biometrics  |  cybersecurity  |  data protection  |  market report  |  security