A mobile app to make biometrics usage more secure

Abstract

With high paced growth in biometrics, its easy availability to capture various biometric features, it is <a>emerging as one of the most valuable technologies for multifactor authentication to verify a user’s identity, for data security. </a>Organizations encourage their members to use biometrics, but <a>they are hesitant to use due to perceived security risks. Because of its low usage rate, many medium and small segment organizations find it unfeasible to deploy robust biometric systems. </a>We propose a solution of an extra layer of security, via a low-cost mobile app framework, “Bio-Guard,” to use biometrics, more securely. We tested the app for its design, functions, usability, and it got a score of more than 71% on the usability scale and a reasonably low equal error rate (EER) of 6%. The survey to evaluate the usefulness of the app showed a favorable response of 80%. The results show a good potential of the app to make access to biometric data more secure. The app may enhance users’ confidence-level in encouraging higher participation of users in the usage of biometrics. Higher usage rates may make deployment of biometrics more cost-effective for many medium and small segment organizations to decrease their information security risk.