Biometrics - at last we have a standard!

I guess it is time now for us to wash our hands and prepare to use our fingers for ID, put our eyeballs into readers, submit our faces for reading.....

 At long last, the ISO has released a standard for financial services for biometric application - ISO 19092: 2008. Hopefully, the bio-Id applications will now have a common platform to offer standardized identification across the world.

Check out http://www.iso.org/iso/catalogue_detail?csnumber=50145

The new standard, ISO 19092:2008, Financial services - Biometrics - Security framework, establishes the security requirements for the implementation and management of state-of-the-art biometric identification technology within the financial industry.

According to ISO 19092:2008, "the sheer volume and value of such transactions exposes the financial community and its customers to severe risks from accidental or deliberate alteration, substitution or destruction of data. There is therefore a strong need for an ironclad authentication method.

Biometrics is increasingly considered as a reliable means of identification. It includes technologies such as finger image, voice identification, eye scan and facial image. Its advantage and appeal lies in its convenience and ease of use, its level of apparent security, performance and non-invasiveness.

ISO 19092:2008 describes the security framework for using biometrics for authentication of individuals in financial services. It introduces the types of biometric technologies and addresses issues concerning their application."

"ISO 19092 offers a valuable international consensus-based tool to the financial industry that will encourage the secure implementation of biometrics as an authentication method within this sector. This standard is one step ahead, paving the way for the next generation of safer and more reliable financial transactions, increasingly important in today's electronic era," commented Mr. Mark Lundin, Chair of the ISO subcommittee who developed the standard (subcommittee SC 2, Security management and general banking operations from ISO technical committee ISO/TC 68, Financial services)."

So folks, after many years of 'pilots', spills and chills, we may be on course to world wide adoption of biometric standards in our daily life for financial transactions. It should serve as a life line for companies like Pay by Touch that is filing for Chapter 11 and many such bold ventures that just couldn't convince consumers (and banks too!) to do away with PINs and passwords.

Now banks can ask consumers to 'show them the finger'!