In 2021, the TSA launched their new touchless identity solution in one Detroit airport. Now it’s available in nine airports across the U.S. Instead of waiting in long lines for a person to manually verify you match your ID, you get your photo taken and facial recognition software sends you on your way. That’s just one example of using biometric data for security, but is it safe? And where else will be seeing it used?
Biometric data is using your face, fingerprint, handprint, or your voice to log in or go through security. But how does it work?
“If you’re using touch id or face id on your phone, this is creating a biometric imprint of yourself on your phone that stays on your phone,” said Kevin Moran, PhD, Assistant Professor of Computer Science, Cyber Security and Privacy Cluster, University of Central Florida.
Computer scientist Kevin Moran explains that when logging into an app or website on your phone, your phone verifies whether or not it’s you, then sends a yes or no, not the biometric data itself.
“And this can be a lot more secure than a password because you’re not going to forget it,” said Moran.
And since you can’t send a functional fingerprint over the internet, it’s a lot less likely for it to get hacked. But what about AI?
“AI is kind of changing the landscape about the types of data that you might want to consider sharing,” explained Moran.
While your fingerprint is safe for now, your voice is currently the most in danger of an AI attack with voice cloning.
And your face may not be that far away.
“We are seeing research that’s coming out that can reverse engineer the kind of depth map that facial recognition systems can be using purely from photos of your face at different angles,” said Moran.
Professor Moran says that it would take a very sophisticated knowledge of AI to spoof a face right now. Also, since biometric data is stored locally, they would also need your personal device
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