As the digital space continues to grow, there is a need to ensure that users are safeguarded and protected against fraud and impersonation. According to research, 78% of the total fraud in the UK emanated from online space in 2022.
Social media platforms lead to online fraud, with most crimes occurring in the banking and finance sector. More than half of the crimes start from social media. Therefore, preventive measures should be undertaken to reduce cyber security threats by employing authentication technologies.
With the ever-increasing fraudulent activities occurring through telecommunication and online media platforms, all sectors must unite to solve the problem from the source to ensure that sensitive information is protected.
As online transactions and interactions continue to rise daily, the urge to develop authentication technologies has increased. Today, authentication technology plays a critical role in verifying the identity of individuals, and granting access to authorized users, thus reducing cyber security threats.
In recent years, significant advancements in authentication technologies have led to the emergence of more effective trends with a high potential to safeguard user identity and sensitive data for companies or organizations. This article will explore the latest authentication technologies that have revolutionized how you authenticate and secure your digital identity.
- Blockchain authentication technology
Lately, blockchain authentication technology has gained significant attention due to its potential to revolutionize the authentication process through an immutable ledger for identity verification. For instance, metaverify uses blockchain technology to authenticate people and prevent fraud during virtual transactions.
Additionally, metaverify provides consumer analysis behavior to the business to identify suspicious virtual identities to protect customers from fraud and impersonation in a metaverse world. With so many people active in the metaverse, investing in blockchain authentication technology will ensure you control your digital identity and reduce the risk of identity theft and unauthorized access.
- Biometric authentication
Biometric technology has gained popularity over the past decades, with many companies and countries using this authentication trend to verify the identity of their employees and citizens, respectively. It is easy to use and can provide highly accurate and unique physical characteristics of the user needed during identity verification.
The technology uses fingerprints, hand geometry, retinal scans, voice, hand veins, and facial thermograms to authenticate. Combining these characteristics makes biometric authentication robust and resistant to fraudulent attempts due to added security measures.
Besides being widely used in e-commerce platforms for secure checkout, smartphones use biometric authentication to verify the user’s identity and grant access. This enhances security and privacy since you can’t use the phone without unlocking it with either fingerprint or facial recognition scan.
So, even when you lose your gadget, you are assured that sensitive information is protected.
- Automation and Interaction
Automation and integration is an innovative development in the authentication industry that you should try. It is cost-effective and offers top-notch security and convenience to the users. As data continues to be a valuable asset for all organizations globally, safeguarding digital information is very important for the growth of companies and organizations.
Therefore, developing powerful software integrated with cyber security measures will go a long way in protecting your organization’s sensitive information. Remember, any slight mistake in the browser can be a potential vulnerability for hackers to access critical information.
- Passwordless Authentication
Traditional passwords have continuously posed security threats to users for a long time. Weak and compromised passwords have made passwords a promising target for cybercriminals. Today, the passwordless authentication technique has gained more traffic, with many people trying to mitigate the risk of their password leaking.
Passwordless authentication allows you to use one-time pins, security keys, and other secure alternative techniques for identity verification, eliminating the necessity of relying on passwords. Therefore, eliminating the reliance on passwords reduces the risk of password-related attacks, including brute force attacks and phishing.
In addition to enhanced security, passwordless authentication is cost-effective. Managing secure passwords, related tasks, and resetting forgotten passwords can be expensive and time-consuming, especially if you have many passwords.
With passwordless authentication, you can eliminate all the costs since you don’t have a single password to reset or manage.
- Multi-Factor Authentication
This technology combines two or more authentication techniques, such as biometrics and one-time codes sent to the smartphone for identity verification.
Since the onset of covid 19 pandemic, many organizations have implemented multi-factor authentication techniques to enhance the security of corporate data, considering that employees were working online, hence the need to put measures for monitoring those visiting company’s systems.
Before being granted access to the organizational database, employees must provide multiple authentication forms to verify their identity, adding extra protection against unauthorized access.
- Zero Trust Model
The zero trust model has become an increasingly popular authentication technology beyond traditional password authentication. It combines other authentication techniques to enhance security and safeguard the organization’s information. As the name suggests, this technology operates on the principle of never trusting before verification.
Many companies use this technique today to enhance their resources’ safety and verify their employees’ identities. With the heightened hacking cases, the zero trust model adds a protective layer against these cyber-attacks.
The access grant is based on the device information, behavior, location, and user identity, among other factors, meaning that access is monitored and controlled virtually.
Conclusion
Today, authentication technology is experiencing exceptional advancements and trends that aim at reducing fraudulent attacks and cases of impersonation, verifying, and protecting user identity. From blockchain technology, multi-factor authentication, zero trust model, and authentication to biometric authentication.
The advances reflect the effort put into providing robust and secure authentication mechanisms compared to the traditional techniques that are attractive targets for many hackers. Therefore, implementing these trends will ensure you remain safe and secure in the digital world.
Thank you,
Glenda, Charlie and David Cates
