Biometrics , Multi-factor & Risk-based Authentication , Security Operations
Behavioral Biometrics: Key Challenges
Nok Nok Lab's Rajiv Dholakia on Emerging Authentication IssuesAs more companies move away from passwords toward behavioral biometrics, they face new challenges, says Rajiv Dholakia, vice president products at Nok Nok Labs, a company which is into next generation authentication.
Behavioral biometrics relies on a behavioral trait of an individual, rather than a physical trait. Examples include speech patterns, signatures and keystrokes.
"There are no standards as such in this area on how the information is collected, how it's stored and how it's processed," Dholakia says in an interview with Information Security Media Group. "And therefore, there may be some privacy hazards associated with the technique unless a manufacturer makes it super clear exactly what is being collected, how it's being processed and whether that profile data is anonymized."
Other behavioral biometrics issues include accuracy and concerns about passive collection of information from users, he says. "Moreover, when you are using behavioral biometrics, you have to be super certain that the information coming from all sensors is coming from a real device as opposed to a virtual machine," he says (see: Putting Behavioral Biometrics to Use).
The storage of biometric information has evolved, Dholakia points out. Dholakia says biometric data is no longer stored as an image but as a template. "What it is doing is creating a matrix of points; it's a mathematical representation of that biometric," he says.
In this interview (see audio link below photo), Dholakia also discusses:
- The different kinds of biometrics;
- The challenges of behavioral biometrics;
- How to address the challenges that biometrics pose.
Dholakia is vice president, products at Nok Nok Labs. He previously was vice president and general manager at Symantec. He also has held senior leadership positions in business, technology and product development at ValiCert, Taligent, Sun Microsystems and IntelliCorp.