As local & national pandemic lockdowns begin to lift and our businesses return to the grind, the "new normal" will look much different for all of us, small & large enterprises alike.
While this transition will reveal itself in various forms, security & technology challenges will undoubtedly play a prominent role as businesses look to find ways to mitigate the spread of COVID-19 and other viruses while still conducting business as usual.
Before COVID-19, consumers in the USA were moderately hesitant to accept biometric tech. Nevertheless, the continued evolution and the desire to create safer environments has replaced the old anxieties surrounding biometrics. With employees & consumers hesitant to touch things that others may have touched, biometric technology will earn increased acceptance.
While many employees have returned to the office, millions still work from home using personally owned or company-provided computers and devices. Either way, employers need proof that only authorized workers are logging onto their corporate network, and biometrics are the best way to accomplish this; in 2019, the FBI even recommended organizations add biometrics to ID employees and customers.
While biometrics are more widely accepted, pandemic safety and the cleanliness and safety that comes with a contactless biometric move this security solution higher up on the priority list. The trend towards touchless' has not been more evident than in US consumer habits. Instead of reaching for cash or credit cards, consumers are paying with their phones. A recent survey conducted by Mastercard found that 79 percent of respondents use contactless payments, most citing safety concerns.
There are, as is the case with most biometric authentication, privacy concerns. The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) recently issued a warning around facial recognition, stating that such systems are "less secure than alternatives, unfriendly to privacy, and likely riskier than other (ID) alternatives for anyone concerned about catching COVID-19."
It may seem like a no-brainer, but a contactless system that makes a user take off their mask to ID them endangers the user and others around them.
'Passwords and PINs are not secure enough, Move to Biometrics'
'Everyone is concerned about viruses and germs, Move to Touchless'
Just months ago, facial recognition was the leader in device authentication, shown by Apple's addition of facial recognition on the iPhone X.
That fell apart once people started wearing masks.
So what is the Goldielocks solution?
As we've mentioned before, touchless biometric solutions like iris scanning are obscenely expensive to integrate.
On the flip side, V2verify's voice biometric authentication is simple & secure, impossible to fake, and the user authenticated with only 2 seconds of natural speech; & all you need is a smartphone.
As with all technologies, one has to end up on top!
The best biometric is your Voice!
Expect the coronavirus pandemic to bring lasting changes to our lives, from the way we authenticate identity to how we open doors. If there's a common theme among these changes, it's that they will favor contactless solutions.
Voice Biometrics will be the sweeping security change you're company is looking for in a Post COVID-19 World.