Strongholds must be built around each individual’s identity, but what’s the best way to do this in an era of hyper-connectivity? Biometric solutions are our best answer.

The ways in which employees access corporate systems have changed dramatically. The shift to remote working, alongside the sheer volume of devices being used to access private networks, must be the wake-up call to reevaluate and modernize security strategies.

The security perimeter has shifted from the office to user end-points, and now finally to the end-user itself and their identity. The question being asked is not whether or not identity is the new perimeter, it’s how can it best be protected?

How can companies ensure that on-premise and cloud services are safe, while employees and third parties are suddenly requesting access to private systems from all over the world?

The answer to securing the new perimeter lies in rethinking how we authenticate and validate identities in the era of digitization.

How can companies ensure that on-premise and cloud services are safe, while employees and third parties are suddenly requesting access to private systems from all over the world?

The answer to securing the new perimeter lies in rethinking how we authenticate and validate identities in the era of digitization.

Unfortunately, in the online domain identities are too commonly guarded with weak credentials like email addresses and passwords. These methods are inherently insecure, leaving companies and their users susceptible to privacy and security threats.

Not only are login credentials at extremely high risk of being compromised in breaches, (Computer Weekly reports that there are over 15 billion credentials for sale on the dark web), users also still disregard password best practices, insisting on sharing passwords, PINs, and other login data, despite the known risks.

“95% of people share passwords with up to 6 people” — LastPass

In an increasingly connected world, weak credentials expose organizations and individuals to large-scale threats. To make matters more complicated, criminals are exponentially adept at using compromised email addresses and passwords to breach end-points and networks.

Since one set of compromised credentials can enable a bad actor to breach an entire network, it’s imperative that we rethink authentication and identity management.

Identity is the new cybersecurity frontier — but who can companies trust?

The answer is no one. By implementing a zero-trust approach to authentication and identity management, companies can ensure that only the right users have access to the right systems, at the right time.

Zero-trust models differ from traditional security models in that they assume that nobody can be trusted (whether they’ve previously gained access to a network or not). This means users will need to continuously authenticate to prove their identity.

Read our blog on zero-trust security to gain a deeper understanding of zero-trust security models…

Biometric information should always be encrypted (never stored in its raw format)
Encrypted biometric data should never be stored in a centralised location , where it is at higher risk of being compromised.
Biometric data should not be linked to personally identifiable information — like a user’s name, email address or date of birth.
No one should have access to a user’s complete set of encrypted biometric templates
The same standards should apply independent of a user’s device or operating system.

The Keyless solution: Passwordless Biometrics

Keyless combines multi-modal biometrics with privacy-enhancing technology to provide seamless and secure passwordless solutions for the workforce and consumers.

Our solutions are uniquely designed to ensure that biometric data is never at risk of being compromised, lost, or stolen, empowering our clients to harness the security and convenience of biometric authentication. To offer strong-authentication, Keyless verifies that each authentication request is launched from a user’s trusted device, offering another layer of security that is minimally disruptive yet reliable.

With built-in multi-factor authentication, our passwordless, biometric solutions offer unmatched security, privacy, and usability.

Our solutions enable companies to properly secure identities, end-points and networks, from anywhere in the world, without compromising on user-experience, or productivity.

In an increasingly digital world where cyberattacks are the number one threat against organizations, it’s critical that companies leverage biometrics to enhance security and transform their authentication and identity management experiences.

By leveraging a zero-trust approach, companies can dramatically reduce the chance of a threat actor breaching private systems. But to ensure strong security without jeopardizing convenience, companies must move away from traditional authentication methods which are cumbersome and unreliable.

Biometric solutions are key to securing identities in the remote era

Biometric authentication and identity management solutions solve some of the key remote security challenges.

Improved user experience

Biometrics allow for fast, easy, and secure remote login experiences that are minimally disruptive to workflow. The seamlessness of biometrics can empower companies to strengthen security by enabling them to implement tighter access controls.

Invisible protection

As well as enhancing authentication flows for employees, customers, and partners, multimodal biometric solutions help mitigate unauthorized access by presenting multiple inherence-factor challenges to users.

By combining physical and behavioral biometrics, companies can deliver a sophisticated authentication solution that is resilient to spoofing threats and account takeovers — making it extremely difficult for hackers to assume the identity of an employee or user.

Behavioral biometrics differ from physical biometrics (facial, iris and, fingerprint scans), as they are invisible to the human eye and dependent on the individual’s unique interactions with their digital devices.

The combination of both behavioral with physical biometrics poses a challenge for cybercriminals — who usually rely on leveraging stolen and leaked passwords.

However, since a user’s biometrics are irreplaceable, it’s imperative that companies handling biometric data ensure that it’s never at risk. If vendors fail to do this, a user’s identity could be permanently compromised.

The stakes are higher with biometrics

Last year, BioStar 2, a web-based security platform that is used by thousands of companies, suffered a breach in which 28 million records were compromised. The company’s databases were allegedly unprotected, making it easy for biometric information to be stolen.

The Guardian reported that the type of data exposed in the BioStar 2 breach was, “fingerprint data, facial recognition data, face photos of users, unencrypted usernames and passwords, logs of facility access, security levels and clearance, and the personal details of staff”.

How then, can companies leverage the benefits of biometric authentication without jeopardizing user privacy and security?

In the words of security and compliance manager, Neville Armstrong, “In a digital world, security has to be built into the infrastructure, business applications and solutions from the moment that they are conceived, not just considered post-development.”

Privacy at the core of identity

When it comes to securing biometric data, there are five key rules that must be met to ensure a user’s identity is not as risk of being compromised:

Biometric information should always be encrypted (never stored in its raw format)
Encrypted biometric data should never be stored in a centralised location , where it is at higher risk of being compromised.
Biometric data should not be linked to personally identifiable information — like a user’s name, email address or date of birth.
No one should have access to a user’s complete set of encrypted biometric templates
The same standards should apply independent of a user’s device or operating system.

The Keyless solution: Passwordless Biometrics

Keyless combines multi-modal biometrics with privacy-enhancing technology to provide seamless and secure passwordless solutions for the workforce and consumers.

With built-in multi-factor authentication, our passwordless, biometric solutions offer unmatched security, privacy, and usability.

Our solutions enable companies to properly secure identities, end-points and networks, from anywhere in the world, without compromising on user-experience, or productivity.