Samsung Galaxy Note 7 Iris Technology Security Risks

The new Iris recognition technology provides many opportunities for mobile banking, but also takes a look at how the new technology poses many security risks and how these can be overcome. John Fernandez, Senior Legal Counsel at PPRO Group commented below.

 John Fernandez, Senior Legal Counsel at PPRO Group:

“Samsung’s Galaxy Note 7 boasts iris recognition technology and provides interesting opportunities for mobile banking. Compared to knowledge based authentication, biometric solutions such as Samsung’s offer more robust security and will prove an attractive proposition to issuers in the fight against fraud. It will certainly stimulate more interest in biometric authentication and increase competition amongst other market players to develop and offer similar solutions. Add that to a greater ease of use for the consumer and over time we will continue to see a gradual adoption of biometric authentication across the financial landscape.

However, this new technology doesn’t come without risks. Security challenges exist on the data storage side – if there is a data breach and a user’s biometric data is stolen, it can’t simply be changed like a password which would lead to serious long term issues for the affected party. Therefore, preventing the risk of such breaches and convincing tech savvy customers that data is held in as secure a manner as possible will be key to widespread adoption of the technology.”