Mobile credentials and MFA driving biometric access control growth: survey

The number of organizations using biometrics for physical access control is set to rise from 35 percent to 48 percent, based on plans shared in HID’s 2025 State of Security and Identity Report.

The report also suggests shifts towards software-based solutions and artificial intelligence, including AI agents, are coming over the year ahead.

HID surveyed 1,800 partners, end-users, and security and IT professionals from around the world for the report.

Mobile credentials are one of access control’s top trends, according to 61 percent of security leaders, nearly two-thirds of whom have deployed them or plan to.

Biometrics are particularly popular as part of multi-factor authentication (MFA), according to the report. Almost three quarters of MFA implementations use biometrics, the report found.

Among the small majority note planning to deploy biometrics, leaders cited high implementation costs as the most common barrier (33 percent), followed by privacy concerns (31 percent) and a lack of clear return on investment (22 percent). The convergence of biometrics and mobile credentials will likely drive greater demand in the years ahead, however, according to HID.

The observations about cost and the impact of mobile credentials are echoed by facilities management professionals in an article by FacilitiesNet.

Jensen Hughes Senior Security and Risk Consultant Matthew Harper says that biometric scanners are more costly than legacy technologies, but expects them to increasingly replace older devices over time.

Biometrics “can give you a much higher level of security,” Facility Engineering Associates Senior Consultant Randy Braverman told the publication. “Biometrics are fundamentally transforming access control by providing more secure, convenient, and efficient ways to authenticate individuals.”

They are also enabling mobile and touchless access technologies to move into the mainstream, according to FacilitiesNet.

The adoption of biometrics is significantly higher in Latin America and Asia, with only 21 percent and 38 percent respectively planning not to use the technology, compared to 58 percent in North American and 54 percent in Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

Among those implementing biometrics, 72 percent plan to use fingerprints, while 52 percent plan to use face as their biometric modality.

Repeat deployment for Veridos, certification for Suprema

Veridos is supplying face biometrics for access control at the Munich Security Conference for the sixth year in a row. Attendees of the conference, on February 14 to 16, will receive badges with RFID chips supplied by Veridos partner NXP Semiconductors, which contain a unique ID and are read by authorized devices.

The unique ID is associated with stored face biometrics, which are matched by cameras at “walk-through portals” in a contactless process the company says is efficient and highly secure.

The system utilizes Innovatrics’ facial recognition algorithms, which were integrated with Veridos’ eAccess system last year. The two companies had previously worked together on bringing DNA biometrics to applications like border control.

Suprema’s combined biometric access control and video surveillance solution BioStar 2 VMS has been certified as Level One “Good Software” by the TTA (Telecommunications Technology Association).

The TTA is a South Korean government-affiliated body supporting the adoption of IT standards, and its Good Software certification program evaluates products based on ISO/IEC 25023, 25051 and 25041.

Article Topics

access control  |  biometric authentication  |  biometrics  |  HID  |  Innovatrics  |  multifactor authentication  |  Suprema  |  Veridos