Biometrics’ role in zero trust considered by Fingerprint Cards, Nuance

Biometrics can provide the constant identity verification necessary to implement a cybersecurity strategy based on zero trust principles, without unduly inconveniencing workers, according to a blog post by Fingerprint Cards SVP Michel Roig.

The ‘never trust, always verify’ approach requires organizations to have a technology that can bind users and credentials, and presents an opportunity to shift away from legacy authentication as part of that process, Roig argues.

“The human factor has long been considered the primary weakness of cyber security, and one of the core objectives of Zero Trust is to address this vulnerability,” he writes.

Between the proliferation of smartphones and popularity of their native biometric capabilities, and the availability of biometrics-enables peripherals, including access cards, even relatively challenging environments like shared and work-from-home workstations can be secured.

Nuance pitches voice biometrics for zero trust

Similarly, a blog post by Nuance Communications VP and GM, Security & Biometrics Business Line,  Brett Beranek reviews a recent conversation with representatives of Microsoft and Nuance Australia about zero trust, and the role voice biometrics can play in bringing the modern security approach to contact centers.

Since the pandemic, the environments agents operate in have changed dramatically, and the security and monitoring technologies and techniques of the past no longer apply in many cases.

Agents can use voice biometrics to authenticate their customers, and used with a holistic fraud prevention platform, can support an organization-wide zero trust security posture.

The acquisition of Nuance by Microsoft, meanwhile, has been granted final approval by the European Commission. An investigation found that competition for transcription software, cloud services, enterprise communication services, customer relationship management, productivity software and PC operating systems would not be significantly reduced.

BIO-key has published a whitepaper on ‘Why Zero Trust is Important,’, exploring the architecture of zero trust approaches, and the need for ongoing real-time trustworthiness assessments and identity verification. The whitepaper also reviews what technologies are needed to make zero trust work, and barriers to its adoption.

Article Topics

access management  |  BIO-key  |  biometrics  |  cybersecurity  |  Fingerprint Cards  |  identity verification  |  Nuance Communications  |  voice biometrics  |  Zero Trust