March 6, 2009
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News: Are we ready for biometric Credit Cards?
According to a recent Unisys survey we are – at least 70% of us. But how many of us really understand what goes into this? Sure, in these riddled times of 100 million credit card batch thefts, it really sounds like a good thing. After all, haven't we fixed all the ‘waiting line' problems with biometric passports? Why not fix all the problems with stolen credit cards the same way? There is a strong movement in the credit card industry to do just that.
Any security expert worthy of credibility will agree that every time they build a better ‘rat trap' , better, more evolved, rats emerge to meet the challenge. The danger in the case of biometrics lies in the ‘collateral damage' when it comes to fraud and identity theft. Whereas, when a credit card is stolen, a new credit card with new data quickly replaces the compromised one. It's easy to just ‘replace numbers and codes'. But how do we replace a person's set of finger prints, voice data or retinal scan characteristics? What about facial features? Yes, we have the technology to employ all of these features and have already put them to use in many applications. But, if that data is published on credit cards and then stolen what do we do? Get a new face?
Admittedly, there may be some value in including finger print technology for credit card security. Most banks are already doing this for check cashing. But, up to this point, it hasn't been worth the while for thieves to get heavily involved in it because, having to be personally present imposes greater risk then intelligent thieves are willing to take on. Still, like security experts will tell you, if you make it worth their while, the thieves will come.
Eventually, our education in success vs. danger will allow us to safely employ biometrics for credit card security and the future will embrace it. At this early juncture, however, the public will play as guinea pigs if we don't demand sound proof of overall protection before we leap into this global risk pool.