[Ramengirl Magazine Vol.154] Is Biometric Technology Makes You Worried? | Ramengirl🍜

[EN]

Is Biometric Technology Makes You Worried?

　I've been recommended to install an app called 'PASS' every time I go through the authentication process. I was wondering what kind of app is this, so I researched. Turns out, this is a simple personal identification app for LG U + users, and it supports biometric services such as fingerprints, iris, face recognition. Fortunately, I still can set up the password with the words, so I set it up like that. Not only this app, but I have been getting "recommended" of biometric authentication quite often while I using financial services these days.

　*What is biometric authentication? * Biometric authentication refers to the extraction of biometric information such as personal fingerprints, voice, face shape, iris, etc. and applied to the security system.



　I had my first experience with biometric technology in Japan several years ago when I started a part-time job for the first time in my life. At my work, we had fingerprint authentication for the shift records. There was no inconvenience except that I was annoyed by sometimes the machine is so slow to recognize. It was the first biometric technology I encountered, it was very strange to me and it made me feel like I was in the future. Nowadays, even personal phones have become possible to recognize fingerprints as well as iris and face recognition, so only a few people will be surprised by biometric authentication.

　In Korea, the field using biometric authentication is gradually expanding, especially in the financial sector. The blockchain-based crypto market is no exception, and it seems that dozens of articles are coming out every day.

　I think that many people will say 'security' for why biometric authentication being so actively developed. But is biometric technology really safer than the existing password method of entering text? Personally, I have lots of concerns about biometric technology from the perspective of security and personal privacy.

　The fingerprint recognition technology which can easily unlock with putting finger on is now universal enough to occupy most of the biometrics market. But if you do a little search, you can see how many people are hacking the fingerprint authentication system easily and quickly, even if you are not a professional hacker, and it is vulnerable to security by using lipstick and tape as well as hacking using silicon rubber, gum, and tangerine peel.

　Iris biometric technology is rated as excellent in security and accuracy, but it can be copied using high-definition photography and 3D printers. In 2014, a hacking group in Germany actually succeed copying Russian President Putin's iris using photographed on the Internet. Face recognition technology can be hacked in the same way. Recently, using dynamic state verification technology, it is said that iris authentication is can't be copied​ by photographs, but it is still not safe either. It's a scary theory, but hackers who money is the target will not be afraid​ of kidnapping or cutting off the part of somebody's body.

　You can set up the passwords differently and you can change them periodically now, but it's impossible to do with a ​biometric password because there is only one biometric information on the planet.
I most important thing with crypto is security, and if I imagine that all my crypto​ assets hacked by my biometric information... it would be the worst nightmare. If it happens, do I need to change my fingerprints, iris, and do plastic surgery for my face...?

　Of course, biometrics isn't just has a bad part. It may be less secure but it's more convenient and easier to use.

　I'm going to try not to use biometrics authentication until I could especially for financial services. What do you guys think about biometrics? Is it makes you worried or excited?