BiometricsAussie banks considering biometric security
Australia’s major banks are considering a move to biometric security systems in an effort to boost security for their customers; the banks are changing their systems as a way for customers to keep their money and valuables safe without ATM cards
Australia’s major banks are considering a move to biometric security systems in an effort to boost security for their customers. The banks are changing their systems as a way for customers to keep their money and valuables safe without ATM cards, which can be lost, but the move could backfire as it is still unknown how customers will react to new technology.
Biometric security systems uses an aspect of a person’s physiology to verify their identity, such as a thumbprint or eye scanner. Law enforcement agencies have been using biometrics for years, including fingerprints and DNA to solve cases.
Technology Spectator reports that Australian banks want to use biometric security systems to reduce the chances of fraud. Also, ATMs are time consuming between inserting a card and typing in a Personal Identification Number (PIN) and accessing a litany of menu options.
Using a handprint scanner could eliminate the use of an ATM card as well as the need to remember a PIN, but some banks may use a combination of both traditional methods and biometric security for customers to access their accounts.
In the United States, biometrics are used in security-based gun safes, and have been found to reduce the possibility of a child or minor having access to guns kept in the house.
Some in Australia do have concerns about the systems, mostly because there are no laws banning the sale of biometric data. Roger Clarke, a professor at the Australian National University, told this to an audience at a Security in Government Conference in 2003.
“Biometrics are among the most threatening of all surveillance technologies, and herald the severe curtailment of freedoms, and the repression of ‘different thinkers’, public interest advocates and ‘troublemakers.”
Philip Chronican CEO of ANZ bank in Australia, recently indicated that a survey commissioned by the bank found that 67 percent of customers “would be comfortable” using an eye scanner. The bank plans to introduce biometric systems slowlyinto ATM machines starting next year.
In the near future biometric systems will take a lot of the plastic cards that we own out of our wallets and at the same time keep the identities of individuals harder to steal.
