News
PIDaaS, the secure authentication system based on biometric recognition technologies through mobile devices.
May 2016 by Marc Jacob
Barriers between online and offline paperwork are disappearing every day. This implies that more and more things, that previously could be made only face-to-face, now can be done online, so increasingly people have sensitive uncontrolled information in clouds. PIDaaS will guarantee an easy, agile and secure access through biometric data.
The use of these unique features of each person is seen as the ideal solution to improve the privacy, but to get rid of thousands of passwords we have to remember to make a payment or purchase online too. According to a MasterCard survey, 53% of shoppers forget crucial passwords more than once a week, losing more than 10 minutes when they reset their accounts.
Mobile devices and the explosion of social media have increased the use of biometrics for daily activities which require authentication, such as payments, and for the substitution of passwords and PINs. However, some issues such as user acceptance or resistance to fraud must be well addressed. PIDaaS, through its integrated technologies, allows users to manage their identity, personal data and biometric templates (digital reference of characteristics that have been extracted from a biometric sample) and to be authenticated through speaker and face recognition.
PIDaaS is one of the projects of Horizon 2020, the most ambitious program research and innovation launched by the European Union. The aim of the project consists in take advantage of available sensors of smartphones (front camera and microphone) for secure authentication of users through biometric data, preserving their privacy. This solution provides an innovative approach to e-Services (e-Commerce, e-Citizen, and e-Health), in a way giving users strong advantages and market competitiveness in the following aspects:
1. Convenience: PIN or password is omitted or expressed by voice/face;
2. Security: users are verified by their biometrics;
3. Privacy protection: biometric information used for verification is protected.
These merits make PIDaaS solution promising in the current and future markets, because none of existing identity authentication solutions including those biometrics-enabled can perform well in all the three above aspects at the same time, which makes a good market perspective for the PIDaaS solution.
PIDaaS will be available from December, 2016.
