False Sense of Security that is Worse than Lack of Security

I found this report very informative — “Biometric identity fraud on the rise” https://www.thinkdigitalpartners.com/news/2022/02/16/biometric-identity-fraud-on-the-rise/

“We wrongly feel safer when we are actually less safe”. That’s a false sense of security. It’s often even worse than lack of security.

Well, we could think of two cases of biometrics identity fraud -

1. false acceptance of biometrics abused

2. weak or reused passwords abused

because biometrics products are usually deployed with a default password in a two-entrance (in parallel) formation, not in a two-layer formation (in series).

People who are not aware of the negative security effect of biometrics used with a default password and are trapped in a false sense of security are often misled to believe that they can be indifferent to the weakness of their default password, largely misguided by the seemingly assuring pseudo-fact that “biometrics is there to help”.

Unsuspecting people would then have no or little incentive to think about the weakness of the default password, which could eventually end up being the weakest and more often reused.

The outcome would be a yet more pleasant paradise for biometrics identity fraud. It’s really alarming that so many reputed tech firms and security people are pouring fuel on this false sense of security.

* 2-minue video “Biometrics in Cyber Space — “below-one” factor authentication”

* Post “Takeaways from Theranos for Worshippers of Mammon”

Incidentally, we are naturally curious about the ratio of (1) and (2) cases, although it is not the main theme of today’s discussion. Please give me a shout if somebody knows something about it.

Our corporate website — https://www.mnemonicidentitysolutions.com/