Behavioral Biometrics
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What are Behavioral Biometrics?
Humans are creatures of habit. The way we walk, the way we type, how we move our cursors around on a website’s login or checkout page, or even how we interact with a smartphone’s touch screen—these are deeply ingrained rituals that, while we don’t necessarily realize it consciously, are unique to us. As much as we can be identified by the physical details of our various body parts, we are also defined by how we perform our daily tasks. This is the world of behavioral biometrics, where what you are is verified by how you act.
Behavioral biometrics are a relatively new modality in the biometrics landscape, with clear applications in enterprise security, online banking, and mobile commerce. Generally, a behavioral biometrics system matches a user’s behavior against a profile built from hundreds of physiological, cognitive, and contextual traits. The result is two-fold: a user can be passively and continuously authenticated simply by behaving normally online; and service providers implementing behavioral systems can detect malware and other cyber-threats designed to mimic human behavior.
Where can I find Behavioral Biometrics?
As mentioned above, behavioral biometrics work in the background, so ideally they are so frictionless you can’t find them. But in another sense, the modality is increasing in popularity and is predicted to go mainstream in 2017, according to research from Acuity Market Intelligence, so very soon you will be able to find behavior-based biometrics everywhere from mobile apps to online retail checkouts.
Financial applications are the most active area for the behavior modality. Banks around the world have been trialing behavioral platforms for anti-fraud purposes, as is the case with UK bank NetWest’s testing of BioCatch technology. And in terms of authentication, Israel-based bank Leumi Card is aiming to fully replace passwords with passive behavioral authentication.
How are Behavioral Biometrics making a difference?
Even though behavioral biometrics are relatively new on the scene, they are already in use and making a difference.
In addition to the financial trials named above, behavior-based biometrics have specifically found a niche for themselves in the enterprise, where businesses are looking for solutions to the high profile and ever growing threat of data breaches. The latest version of Windows Defender Advanced Threat Protection uses behavioral biometric sensors to protect enterprises from the digital threats they face on a daily basis. In that same vein, Balabit’s Blindspotter security platform uses the behavioral modality to detect hijacked or inappropriately shared accounts so that data breaches can be prevented.
A special strength behavioral authentication and analytics counts as a trait is that it is software based and therefore, highly scalable, easy to deploy, and accessible. Pay attention to to this exciting biometric modality in the coming months as it continued to find adoption in an increasingly multimodal market.
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BioCatch is a cybersecurity company that delivers behavioral biometrics, analyzing human-device interactions to protect users and data. Banks and other enterprises use BioCatch to reduce online fraud and protect against a variety of cyber threats, without compromising the user experience. Products & Services: Behavioral Biometrics, Middleware/Software, Mobile Biometrics, Financial
SecuredTouch is the leader in behavioral biometrics for online transactions, delivering continuous authentication technologies to strengthen security and reduce fraud while improving customers digital experience. The online and mobile-optimized solutions require no enrollment, they are easy to implement, and provide real time alerts when suspicious activity is detected from login to logout. Products & Services: Behavioral, Financial
NuData Security is an award winning behavioral biometrics company. Our flagship product, NuDetect, continuously verifies a users’ online identity by authenticating the user based on their natural interactions online – behavior that can’t be mimicked or replicated by a third party. The solution harnesses powerful behavioral and passive biometric analysis to help clients predict fraud and risk. Products & Services: Behavioral, Financial, Healthcare, Mobility