Mastercard pioneers remote biometric card enrolment — Mastercard — “Through significant research and development, a revolutionary battery-powered sleeve will now let people self-enrol their contact or contactless biometric card. Their fingerprint is scanned by the sensor on the card and an encrypted digital template is created and securely stored… ‘Now we have a sleeve to register fingerprints so people don’t have to make a trip to a bank branch.'”
Biometrics
Copenhagen Business School lets students make payments with just their finger — no card or smartphone required
Pay with the touch of a finger — Nets — “Now, students and visitors at Copenhagen Business School (CBS) can leave their cash, cards and smartphones behind and buy lunch using just their finger… The payment process is very much like other contactless payments but the increased security creates one key difference — even high-value transactions do not require the extra step of PIN entry.”
JCB to pilot biometric payment cards in Japan
JCB pilot of Japan’s first fingerprint authentication chip card — JCB — “Users first record one or more fingerprints for authentication purposes. When they want to buy something, they need only touch the fingerprint sensor on the card’s lower right corner with their finger so as to authenticate payment. The fingerprint record is only kept in the card, and given that fingerprint authentication is also done on the card, merchants do not need any further equipment to accept payment.”
India to add face biometrics to Aadhaar national ID platform
Will introduce ‘Face ID’ on July 1 for Aadhaar authentication, UIDAI tells Supreme Court — The Hindu — “The Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) informed the Supreme Court on Thursday that it will introduce ‘Face ID’ on July 1 to enable Aadhaar holders to authenticate their identity to access services, benefits and subsidies. The ‘Face ID’ would help people without biometrics or those with poor biometrics to avoid authentication failures and financial exclusion.”
Samsung includes multi-biometric support in Galaxy S9 and S9+
Built for the way we communicate today: Samsung Galaxy S9 and S9+ — Samsung — “The Galaxy S9 and S9+ support three different biometric authentication options — iris, fingerprint, and facial recognition — so users can choose the way they want to protect their device and applications. The devices feature Intelligent Scan, a new verification that intelligently uses the collective strength of iris scanning and facial recognition technology to quickly and conveniently unlock a user’s phone in various situations. The Galaxy S9 and S9+ also introduce Dedicated Fingerprint, giving users the option to use a different fingerprint to access Secure Folder than the one used to unlock the phone.”
Android P to include native support for iris verification?
Native support for iris scanners is finally coming to Android — XDA Developers — “The inclusion of a HAL interface will standardize how the Android framework will communicate with iris scanners… The inclusion of the base iris feature in Android will allow for apps to detect if the device has an iris scanner in place… The inclusion of the iris framework is what will actually allow for third-party apps to utilize the iris scanner for authentication.”
Russian banks prep for launch of national biometric ID platform
Tinkoff Bank takes part in demonstrating a beta version of the Unified Biometrics System (UBS) — Tinkoff Bank — “Rostelecom, together with Tinkoff Bank, VTB Bank and Pochta Bank, has presented a beta version of its Unified Biometrics System (UBS), a digital platform developed at the request of the Ministry of Communications and Mass Media and the Bank of Russia. The beta version features all the key components to deliver basic human identification functionality and is ready to be integrated into the banks’ information systems… The commercial launch of the Unified Biometrics System is slated for 1 July 2018.”
Face recognition to be supported by more than a billion smartphones in 2020
More than one billion smartphones to feature facial recognition in 2020 — Counterpoint Research — “The diffusion of facial recognition technology into lower tier price bands will be faster than any other flagship feature due to 2D facial recognition being native on the Android platform… In future, Counterpoint Research expects mobile devices will combine biometric sensors for the face, iris, voice and fingerprints. Rather than competing against each other, each biometric technology will be layered on top of each other with the most convenient and least intrusive being selected on an application by application basis.”
Hong Kong bank adds finger vein biometrics to ATMs
Hong Kong lender banking on finger veins being better than faces for ATM security — South China Morning Post — “Bosses at Bank of China Hong Kong said on Tuesday they expected to bring finger vein identification to all of the company’s ATMs across the city, claiming the feature to be more secure than facial recognition. The bank – the first to use the new technology in the city – had already extended it to a third of its cash machines by last month.”
Consumers call for biometric logins to financial services apps
IBM Future of Identity study: Millennials poised to disrupt authentication landscape — IBM — “Security was vastly ranked as the top priority for banking, investing, and budgeting apps — for these categories on average 70% selected security as the top priority, with 16% selecting privacy, and 14% selecting convenience… 44% ranked fingerprint biometrics as one of the most secure methods of authentication; passwords and PINs were seen as less secure (27% and 12% respectively).”
Canada to test blockchain and biometric identity concept that lets travellers control their own ID
Canada to test advancements in biometrics and blockchain to welcome international travellers — World Economic Forum — “The Known Traveller concept is founded on the principle that an individual traveller has control over the use of their own identity and its components. Due to this decentralization of control over the components of their identity, a traveller can push proof of their identity information — secured by distributed ledger technology and cryptography — to governmental and private-sector entities throughout their journey.”
Samsung patents blood flow biometric for smartphones and wearables
Samsung’s patent shows authenticating users by measuring their blood flow patterns — SamMobile — “The patent describes a method to identify users based on blood flow patterns in their fingers or wrists using sensors in smartphones and smartwatches… According to the patent application, it is possible to authenticate users based on their blood flow patterns as ‘the arterial conduction paths of different users are almost never identical’.”
Researchers demo continuous user authentication system for smartphones
Russian experts submit ‘impenetrable’ smartphone protection system — Phys.org — “The advantage of the new method by the specialists from MEPhI is continuous protection from outside interference without any additional action by the user… Each person has a unique and inimitable style of handling the phone, and the system is based on identifying these unique characteristics.”
Samsung to include iris scanning and face recognition combo in Galaxy S9?
Galaxy S9 may feature ‘Intelligent Scan’, a combination of iris scanning and facial recognition — Android Police — “After some digging around in Samsung’s settings app, a developer and AP reader reached out to us about his discovery of something called ‘Intelligent Scan’… It sounds like Intelligent Scan will combine the sometimes-limited information the iris scanner and your front camera can each extract to piece together a fuller picture of whoever is trying to unlock the phone.”
Mastercard to mandate biometric security for online and mobile payments in Europe
Biometric identification must be made available for all Mastercard users by April 2019 — Mastercard — “All consumers will be able to identify themselves with biometrics such as fingerprints or facial recognition, when they shop and pay with Mastercard by April next year… Banks issuing Mastercard-branded cards will have to be able to offer biometric authentication for remote transactions, alongside existing PIN and password verification. It will also apply to all contactless transactions made at terminals with a mobile device.”
Mastercard to add biometric security to online transactions in Europe
Mastercard establishes biometrics as the new normal for safer online shopping — Mastercard — “Consumers will have the capability to use biometrics, such as fingerprints or facial recognition, as a way to identify themselves when they shop and pay with Mastercard as of April 2019… This shift to biometrics is part of Mastercard’s new action plan to help banks, retailers and partners to prevent fraud and improve the consumer experience in the new digital environment. It also meets new regulatory requirements around Strong Customer Authentication set out by PSD2 and is aimed at ensuring a smoother consumer experience and reducing unjustified declines.”
India to add face recognition to Aadhaar biometric ID system
Now, face recognition to authenticate Aadhaar, but with biometrics or OTP — Times of India — “To be made available by July 1, the face authentication option will be allowed in combination with fingerprints, or iris scans, or an OTP to verify the details of Aadhaar users… Face authentication will not require any new reference data as photos of citizens are already on the Aadhaar database.”
India adds tokenization to Aadhaar national biometric ID system
Aadhaar adds fresh security layer with 16-digit ‘Virtual ID’ — Times of India — “UIDAI’s Virtual ID, which will be issued from March, will allow over 119 crore [1.19bn] Aadhaar holders to generate a 16-digit temporary number that can be shared with a bank, insurance company or telecom service provider instead of the 12-digit Aadhaar number. All service providers will have to upgrade their systems to mandatorily allow for the new tool from June.”
JCB to trial biometric technology that uses visible light to read palm prints and vein patterns
JCB to test multipurpose biometric authentication for potential launch of authentication and payment scheme using visible light palm authentication — JCB — “JCB will be running a trial of multipurpose server-based visible light palm authentication in February at JCB headquarters in Tokyo, Japan… The trial will focus on testing technical aspects during the registration and payment flow: capturing customer palm print and vein patterns with a smartphone camera, storing the patterns on a server, performing authentication, and returning the results to the smartphone.”
Bank of Cyprus to issue biometric cards to customers
Gemalto launches the first biometric EMV card for contactless payments — Gemalto — “When customers place their fingerprint on the sensor, a comparison is performed between the scanned fingerprint and the reference biometric data securely stored in the card. The biometric sensor card is powered by the payment terminal and does not require an embedded battery; this means there is no limit from battery life nor on the number of transactions.”