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UK financial services provider, Nationwide, has recognised the limitations of PINs and passwords as the sole method of authenticating identity and has developed additional security for its mobile banking app based on behavioural biometrics.
The additional security was developed in recognition of the difficulty of customers in remembering multiple passwords and the inherent insecurity of taking the easy approach of having single passwords covering multiple applications.
The bank has therefore introduced multiple biometrics to provide additional security, including fingerprint recognition, voice recognition and a behavioural element which recognises the customer's unique way of swiping, selecting and interacting with their smarphone or pad.
Whilst the additional measures are initially aimed at mobile users, Nationwide is optimistic about rolling out such measures to other aspects of customer security in the future and is bullish about the use of biometrics as a replacement for the outdated basic security that passwords offer.
Commenting on the move by Nationwide to improve its authentication regime, Barry Scott, CTO EMEA of IT security and authentication specialist company, Centrify told us, "this further highlights the demise of the solitary password. Although passwords are not dead, they are quickly losing their value as a secure means of data protection.
"Many of today's security breaches are a direct result of someone either stealing credentials for privileged accounts or someone using credentials internally to gain access to somewhere they shouldn’t have access to. Organisations such as Nationwide are finally recognising the need for alternatives to the password and the benefits of introducing multi-factor authentication and biometrics across all their services.
"It is crucial that capabilities such as multi-factor authentication are supported across entire networks, users, devices and resources such as mobile apps. Whilst these new methods are still in their infancy, they are certainly taking us one step closer to preventing the increasingly frequent data breach."
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