TSB Bank to add iris recognition to mobile app

TSB Bank will introduce iris recognition capabilities to its mobile banking app starting this September, enabling customers to login to their bank account by simply glancing at their device, according to a report by the BBC.

As a result, TSB will become the first bank in Europe to offer the technology. Customers will need the latest Samsung Galaxy S8 device and register their irises to use the feature.

The banking mobile app currently enables TSB customers to log on to their mobile banking app using fingerprint recognition.

TSB’s chief information officer Carlos Abarca said that iris recognition was the most secure form of biometric authentication currently available as it benefits from “266 different characteristics, compared with 40 for fingerprints.”

Iris recognition provides customers with the benefits of security and convenience because “it takes less than a second to get in – and the gesture is very natural. And you don’t have to remember secret numbers or passwords,” Abarca said.

Samsung added iris recognition capabilities to its other biometric security options, which include face recognition and fingerprint scanning, with the release of Samsung Galaxy S8.

The electronics giant insisted that a person would need to have access to both the phone and a high definition photo of its owner’s eye, in order to bypass the iris recognition system.

Earlier this year, researchers from the Chaos Computer Club (CCC) successfully breached the Samsung Galaxy S8’s iris recognition system to unlock the device using an image of an iris.

“There’s no security option that is absolutely perfect,” Abarca said. “We’re relying not only on the biometrics but the digital certificate on the phone. To fake your eyeball is potentially possible – but it is extremely difficult.”

Article Topics

banking  |  biometrics  |  iris recognition  |  mobile app  |  Samsung