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The extinction of passwords

The extinction of passwords is upon us…

Passwords are problematic, period. Whether they’re being used to protect access to a phone or personal social media accounts; the threat of being hacked remains the same. The extinction of passwords is imminent and it is a change welcomed by many.

Even two-factor authentication is being easily bypassed, showing that we need to protect our data in a much better fashion.

In a world where we can order food, call an uber or check our bank balances with the tap of a screen; it’s time we implemented this technology into security…and thankfully biometric behavioural companies around the world have been working on just that!

Even PayPal are attempting to make things more secure for users, with their “kill all passwords” presentation.

Jonathan Leblanc, a PayPal executive, proposed either:

• Injectibles – measuring unique heart activity
• Ingestible capsules – testing for glucose levels

Whilst it may seem farfetched, it’s definitely better than what MOST people have in place currently.

A study carried by the DataGenetics blog found that the most popular DEBIT PIN was…wait for it…

1234

Moving on from that atrocity, what if I told you that instead of having to remember your many passwords, your device remembered you?

Using the technology of “behavioural biometrics”, this can be made possible. As opposed to an iris/fingerprint scan, this new tech will learn user behaviour and store it as time goes on. If your behaviour changes even in the slightest, so will the data!

The following information can be used in behavioural biometrics:

• The rate at which you scroll
• The way you hold the mouse
• The force which you type on the keyboard
• The tempo of typing

This can be demonstrated from the following image:

Source: behaviosec.com

This data is collected as you go about using your device (with no interruptions). It learns from you as you go about using your phone as you usually would.

The CEO of BioCatch, a company specialising in behavioural biometric technology, believes this method of authentication will surpass lengthy passwords and even fingerprint scanning.

Eyal Goldwerger (the CEO) goes on to say:

“Someone can steal your password, but they cannot steal your behaviour”

However, as with all things, there are pros and cons.

Pros:

There are many obvious benefits and here they are:

1. It’s not static. Passwords are static and don’t change unless you manually change them. The use of this new technology means authentication is always changing/adapting to your behaviour.
2. You don’t have to remember anything, freeing up that storage space in your brain…
3. Could prove to be a very big problem for hackers.
4. More peace of mind for those worrying about passwords being stolen.

Cons:

The cons aren’t as obvious as the pros, but here’s where I think it will get slightly problematic:

1. Devices implementing this technology will likely see a price rise in order to compensate all the money spent on research and production. 
2. If this technology is constantly running in the background of your device, it will definitely affect your battery life.

Aside from these two cons, I can’t really think of much else that could be bad. Behavioural biometrics really need to replace passwords as there is a rise of hacking. Hackers in America alone cost the economy $600 billion in damage, so imagine if we took into account the rest of the world?

What do you think? Is this the extinction of passwords?