With a number of high-profile data breaches in recent years, many companies have begun taking additional precautions to ensure that sensitive information remains untapped. According to IBM, 77% percent of businesses reported at least one data breach in 2015, averaging losses of approximately $3.8 million.
Since only 8% of Internet users vary their passwords or change them regularly, some companies have resorted to more innovative approaches to verify users as they log in.
“The hackers have found a way to impersonate you and me,” said Jim Miller, chief executive of ImageWare Systems, a San Diego-based IT company. “If I hack your password, and I am remotely accessing your company’s network, as far as they know, I am you with the way security is conducted today.”
This is why ImageWare has developed a new technology that makes users to log into their accounts with different forms of verification, in addition to a user name and password.
GoVerifyID requires account holders to either take a selfie or speak a predetermined phrase to enable facial or voice recognition to verify their identities.
This technology is known as a biometric, meaning that it measures the body. Biometrics are a scarcely used commercial technology — used primarily by the government — that usually require far more advanced equipment, like infrared scanners. Not only is this technology expensive and elaborate, but it is often very invasive. Not all employees are willing to put their eyeball up to a scanner just to log into their corporate accounts.
But with GoVerifyID, all employees within a corporation are able to perform the biometric login easily and remotely with the use of a smartphone. Since remote access through mobile devices is one reason that corporations have become more conscientious of their employee login credentials, this technology is directly impactful.
But while GoVerify ID may be less invasive than other biometric alternatives, the ImageWare Systems hasn’t profited from the technology.
“While [biometrics] can be high quality authenticators, I would say adoption rates tend to be pretty low except in top secret environments,” said Jeromie Jackson, director of security and analytics at Nth Generation Computing.
So far this year, ImageWare has reported a $7.8 million loss on just $2.9 million in revenue.
However, as cyber threats become more prevalent and the technology costs lower, Miller believes that the company will become more successful.
“People are trying to hack into these companies daily,” said Miller. “So there is a pressing need, and when your C-suite starts to lose jobs, you tend to give a little more attention to the issue.”
No Comment