Vendor says buyers ready for biometrics as threats outpace security

Ninety-two percent of consumers think cybersecurity threats will continue to outpace defensive efforts. Essentially the same number (91 percent) would be willing to take extra security measures, including biometrics, to regularly prove their identity.

The sentiments are from a new report from United States-based authentication vendor Daon that suggests consumers acknowledge a high-risk environment when they are online.

Further, the data shows 81 percent of respondents say they would be willing to use face or voice biometrics when accessing accounts to better ensure security.

Still, of these, only 26 percent use facial recognition, and the figures are lower (23 percent) for fingerprint recognition.

Interestingly, the top two security measures consumers found to be most secure were a combination of standard passwords and one-time passwords sent to a smartphone (58 percent) and passwords combined with another proof of identity, including face biometrics (39 percent).

Conversely, consumers believed the least secure security measure to be passwords (68 percent) and voice recognition (53 percent).

According to Daon CEO Tom Grissen, the new figures show that consumers may be accepting the gravity of ongoing cybersecurity threats just as companies are adopting a zero-trust architecture.

“As online breaches, hacks and fraud targeting businesses, governments and consumers continue to escalate both in frequency and sophistication, consumers are showing a growing awareness of these threats and a determination to do what is necessary to secure their accounts and information,” says Grissen.

According to the executive, the lack of trust is mainly connected to cybercrime, but businesses need not be discouraged.

“Businesses that deploy advanced technology to prove and continually authenticate identities at every trust point across the customer lifecycle will ensure a trust relationship with their customers,” Grissen adds.

The Era of the Zero Trust Consumer report, conducted in October 2022, is based on a survey of over 2,000 U.S. and more than 1,000 United Kingdom consumers.

“We’ve seen many major industry players already pushing for higher standards of security through initiatives like passkeys, and it shows businesses are now at an inflection point, where they must understand that the path to trust with their customers is through understanding their customers’ views of threats.”

The report comes days after Daon expanded its KYC customer base with the addition of Ireland’s shipping and financial services company An Post.

Article Topics

biometrics  |  consumer adoption  |  cybersecurity  |  Daon  |  face biometrics  |  identity verification  |  market report  |  passwordless authentication  |  voice biometrics  |  Zero Trust