This week, the FBI is dedicating a new Biometrics Technology Center at the agency’s Clarksburg campus.
“The Biometrics Technology Center will be the center for research, development and testing in biometrics for the benefit of the entire U.S. government,” FBI spokesman Steve Fischer told Jim Davis at the Export Telegram.
The new facility will seek to advance biometrics technology, and will certainly serve to cement biometrics as an integral part of our modern security landscape.
Biometrics: Overview
Biometrics authentication is a process by which an individual’s identity is confirmed by evaluating one or more unique biological traits, such as voice recognition, palm geometry, DNA identification, gait recognition, fingerprint matching, facial recognition, iris recognition, signature verification, and vein recognition.
The idea here is that an individual’s behavioral and physiological characteristics are much more difficult to duplicate then say, a run-of-the-mill password.
Because of the next level security offered by biometrics, this technology is being snapped up by end-users across the board, including the government, BFSI and education sectors.
Three prominent industries adopting biometrics:
Government
Globally, biometrics spending in the government sector was valued at just over $6 billion in 2014 and is likely to top $12 billion by 2019, growing at a CAGR of 14.14%.
Up to now, biometrics spending in the government accounted for a majority market share of the global biometrics market. This is likely to decrease slightly over the next few years, as the technology gains popularity in other sectors. However, government will remain a huge user of biometrics.
The shift of government organizations from non-biometric to biometric technologies in several sectors will lead to rapid market growth during the 2015-2019 forecast period. Stringent government regulations with regard to data security in Europe, Latin America, and MEA are likely to increase the adoption of biometrics in the government sector.
Currently, the adoption of fingerprint recognition is high in the government sector (especially law enforcement), followed by DNA identification. Governments are also adopting iris recognition, facial recognition, voice recognition, signature recognition, vein recognition, and hand geometry recognition.
BFSI
The BFSI sector is increasingly adopting biometric technologies to offer banking customers an easy and more convenient authentication alternative to cards, passwords, one-time passwords, and PINs for ATM withdrawals and Internet banking transactions.
Countries like China, Brazil, Poland, India, and Japan have deployed biometrics at ATMs for cash withdrawals, and many other countries in South Africa and Latin America are expected to follow this trend.
Traditional security systems are based on smart cards, PINs, and passwords for identification and authentication. However, the major disadvantage of traditional security systems is that access information can be stolen easily and used for malicious and fraudulent activities. Passwords can also be hacked and spoofed, resulting in loss of critical data.
Market size and forecast
The global biometrics market in the BFSI sector was valued at $1.33 billion in 2014 and should reach $3.51 billion by 2019, growing at a CAGR of 21.83%.
In 2014, JPMorgan Chase, a multinational banking company, was affected by a data breach. Hackers gained access to the names, addresses, emails, and telephone numbers, and savings account information of nearly 83 million customers. Because of the growing threat of hacks like this, global banks and financial institutions have integrated biometric technologies to allow their customers to access online accounts through mobile applications while maintaining the highest security standards. For instance, Deutsche Bank and ING Group are offering the functionality of biometric authentication on its mobile banking app through Apple’s Touch ID.
The market is expected to see aggressive growth through 2015 due to high demand for privacy and data security. However, year on year growth will decline after 2015 as most major banks will have already adopted the technology. That being said, there will still be plenty of growth prospects in emerging econimies in the APAC region.
Education
One of the most recent sectors to get on the biometrics bandwagon is the education sector in the US. The market was valued at $21.49 million in 2014 and is expected to reach $70.12 million by 2019, growing at a CAGR of 26.68%.
Violence in schools is a critical issue in the US, and the government is turning to advanced security technology to help organizations authenticate individuals and identify criminals easily. Use of fingerprint biometrics is high in the educational sector due to the high level of accuracy it provides, and facial recognition is also becoming popular thanks to its user-friendliness.
During the forecast period, educational organizations are expected to phase out traditional PINs and passwords in favor of biometric authentication like voice recognition in order to provide better security for both staff and students.
