A mobile app to make biometrics usage more secure
Bhanu Pratap Singh · 2020
With high paced growth in biometrics, its easy availability to capture various biometric features, it is emerging as one of the most valuable technologies for multifactor authentication to verify a user’s identity, for data security.Organizations encourage their members to use biometrics, but they are hesitant to use due to perceived security risks. Because of its low usage rate, many medium and small segment organizations find it unfeasible to deploy robust biometric systems.We propose a solution of an extra layer of security, via a low-cost mobile app framework, “Bio-Guard,” to use biometrics, more securely. We tested the app for its design, functions, usability, and it got a score of more than 71% on the usability scale and a reasonably low equal error rate (EER) of 6%. The survey to evaluate the usefulness of the app showed a favorable response of 80%. The results show a good potential of the app to make access to biometric data more secure. The app may enhance users’ confidence-level in encouraging higher participation of users in the usage of biometrics. Higher usage rates may make deployment of biometrics more cost-effective for many medium and small segment organizations to decrease their information security risk.