Chinese online payments giant Alipay has adopted Nok Nok Labs’ S3 Authentication Suite, enabling customers with a Samsung Galaxy S5 to use the fingerprint sensor (FPS) on their device to authenticate payments. The move means that “Alipay customers who make purchases and transfers in Alipay’s mobile application, Alipay Wallet, no longer need to enter a password — just apply their fingerprint to the FPS for a simple, secure mobile shopping experience leveraging emerging FIDO standards,” says Nok Nok.
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Biometrics would be fine for physical security but I am not certain for the identity authentication in cyberspace. Biometrics, whether static or behavioral or electromagnetic, cannot be claimed to be an alternative to passwords UNTIL it stops relying on a password for self-rescue against the false rejection altogether while retaining
the near-zero false acceptance in the real outdoor environment. A dog which depends on a man cannot be an alternative to the man.
I wonder how many people are aware that biometrics operated with a password in the OR/disjunction way (as in the case of iPhone) offers a lower security than when only the password is used. Media are
expected to let this fact be known to the public lest consumers should be misguided.