Page 107 - Cyber Defense eMagazine for July 2020

According to research conducted by LastPass, the average person can have up to 97 work-related
passwords that they need to manage, and that’s not even including personal ones. It’s no shock that so
many people reuse the same password, after all, we are only human. Unless you are a genius and have
the world’s best memory, it’s highly likely that you are going to be able to remember so many, let alone
come up with complex combinations to ensure you use unique strong passwords for each account.

With cybercrime on the rise, 55% of people would prefer a method of protecting accounts that don’t
involve passwords. Enter biometric authentication.

What Makes Biometrics a Good Alternative?

Biometric data is unique to you, making it hard to steal and imitate. And so, biometrics are a serious
contender for replacing passwords as the standard login method.

Not only are we familiar with using our biometric data (face and fingerprint) to unlock our devices and in
some cases, a handful of accounts, they also make the login process effortless. There is no need to type
usernames or long complicated passwords. Take mobile banking apps as an example, what could be
more convenient than simply scanning your finger on a reader to see your account balance? Or, even
simpler, look at your phone’s camera to unlock your device via the built-in iris scanner.

Source: Science Focus

While convenience is nice to have, security is the primary concern. Because biometrics are more difficult
to replicate than passwords, hackers cannot obtain your sensitive data with a simple phishing attack.
This makes hacking data that is protected with biometrics much more difficult than password-protected
data.

Cyber Defense eMagazine –July 2020 Edition 107
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