What Is Biometric Signature Authentication?For those whose businesses regularly require them to get signatures from their customers, a more secure method of authentication would be to use biometric signature authentication. Biometric signature authentication uses a special pad that a user signs on with a pen-like device. The software will keep track of the acceleration, pressure, rhythm, speed, and other characteristics while the user is signing, as well as the shape of the signature itself. Biometric signature authentication is a much more secure process than just comparing signatures by sight alone. People can practice tracing the signatures of other people to help make their signature look like that of the other person, but it is unlikely that they would use the exact same acceleration, pressure, rhythm and speed as the person whose signature they are trying to copy. Biometric signature authentication devices also usually encrypt the data that is stored in the central database in order to prevent tampering. This adds further security to this method of authentication. Once a signature has been stored in the central database, biometric signature authentication simply requires the user to sign the tablet whenever authentication is needed. The new signature is compared to the old one on file and a yes or no answer is given as to whether the biometric signature data matches. Over time the database will recognize the natural variation in a person's signature as well. There is a lot of hope that biometric signature authentication can help to minimize the threat of identity theft since this type of signature verification is almost impossible to duplicate. The reliability of this type of verification increases as more characteristics are tracked, and the likelihood of another person being able to duplicate a signature decreases. Biometric signature authentication is more acceptable to most people that using some other forms of biometrics such as retinal scans and fingerprints since signing documents is already something we take part in every day and is a common practice. Asking someone to provide a signature is not considered as intrusive or as sensitive as asking them to provide a retina scan or their fingerprints (especially since fingerprints are associated in people's minds with being booked for a crime at a police station). Biometric signature authentication is one of the more affordable and easy to use forms of biometric authentication, so you can expect this type of verification to begin to be used more often in the future.
|