Is the technology behind biometric locks really safe to use?

The biometric lock is considered the smartest lock known to mankind, controlled by a dedicated fingerprint. Now its degree of safety and effectiveness are in doubt

The biometric lock is considered a smart technology that is an alternative to locks, keys and codes. Using human features such as fingerprints and iris scanners, the technology serves as a smart and individual lock that is able to identify the user. Although the use of a biometric lock is new in the private sector, the use of biometric means is not particularly new and can be found for decades in airports around the world, where iris scanners are often used - which are used as a means of biometric identification based on the iris of the eye, and are based on the unique eye pattern that is not the same as a person's per person.

A password in the palm of our hand

We tend to think that using a biometric fingerprint lock will protect us from break-ins, and will assure us that we know who is in our systems at any given moment - both physically and digitally. But the question is, can we really guarantee this?

Our ability to ensure that our biometric system is somewhat secure is questionable. We might think that the means of biometric identification and a password strong enough to protect it from network hacks would provide the solution, but in truth, it's not as simple as we tend to think.

Unfortunately, these methods are not always effective enough. As we have come to discover in recent years, there are quite a few ways to break into secure computer systems: starting with a few celebrities who have been affected by digital hacks and spreading their photos around the web, to using ransomware that locks mobile devices or business computers, until the blackmailer receives the payment he demanded.

The ethics behind biometrics

Biometric identification technology has become cheaper and more available in the last decade, and in fact we use it almost every day without even realizing it. Today's fingerprint scanners are sufficiently developed, small and accurate that they can be used even on small devices such as smart phones. The use of small fingerprint scanners actually started about 10 years ago, when these were introduced to use in laptops.

This is one of the ways that allow banks to give access to their financial services through smartphones and laptops, using a fingerprint as an alternative to an access code.

In other words, this means that a variety of fingerprint scanners can be used for different purposes, at a low enough cost that the biometric means of identification becomes commonplace. The question is, what about the ethical issues that need to be taken into account?

In 2012 in the UK, The use of biometric identification was introduced in some schools, for the purpose of monitoring the students' attendance. But very quickly an outcry arose among the parents, and complaints began against the managements of the various schools - until the issue led to a government ban on the use of fingerprint scanners in schools without the express consent of the parents.

One of the issues that bothers users and institutions around the world is the fact that even though all of our fingerprints are unique and different from each other, the possibility of fooling the identification systems and finding a loophole still exists. The same systems that are used to protect secure buildings, computer systems or financial institutions, are actually completely unprotected because of this. The ways to bypass biometric locks using a fingerprint are far from the rules of ethics, with the options known to us ranging from printing a fake fingerprint using gelatin, through the use of high-quality photography to gruesome ways that seem to exist only in science fiction movies - such as removing the finger of those who have access to the system.

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Not just fingerprints: biometric facial recognition has been available for several years, which is exactly why government institutions and airports around the world refuse to allow us to smile in passport photos. There are quite a few advantages to the smart facial recognition, but also some questions and problems - such as the sensitivity of the software to environmental conditions such as darkness and light, changes in the visibility of the face in relation to the version the system uses, and more. The most significant problem is that the use of facial recognition means that various technological means (such as computers) can be hacked by placing a picture of the user in front of the web camera. Of course, there are systems that know how to bypass this, but not in all cases.

The biometric identification means may be the answer to security, but it seems that today their use requires additional authentication, such as the use of several fingerprints, a combination of biometric identification with a code or password - to ensure that whoever connects to our system is the only authorized user.

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