Your members have many digital identities.
MyBioID provides secure authentication.
Without passwords.
Social networks
People use social networks such as Facebook and MySpace, as well as chat platforms and other online communication services, to communicate with old friends and to meet new ones. User profiles are a form of self-expression, and often hold a vast amount of personal information. Unfortunately, the wealth of users and information has become a magnet for malicious attackers, resulting in cases of identity theft, damage to personal reputations, and sexual exploitation of children.
The nature of social networks and communication services leads many users to overexpose their private information and overlook security issues as they normally would with, for instance, an online banking account, leaving them open to the threat of unauthorized account access. Malicious attackers can take advantage of such ignorance to collect personal information about the user and their friends. In some cases, unauthorized users have posted negative statements or pictures in the real user’s name.Worst of all, accounts can be created by someone pretending to be someone else because their is no serious user authentication during account registration.
By doing so, attackers may establish and abuse trust with other users, eventually either gathering personal information or actually setting up a face-to-face meeting. This approach has been used many times by sexual predators to lure underage victims.
Trusted online identity
M yBioID biometric authentication service would significantly reduce these problems, by ensuring that only the person who created the account had access to it. When a user attempts to access an account from a PC or mobile phone, a browser-based application asks the user to look at the screen and say a pass phrase. A template containing the biometric data is captured, encrypted, and sent to the server for comparison with a template captured at registration; based on this result access is granted or denied.
While the user is logged in, the system continues to monitor user presence. If the user leaves the area the session is automatically locked or suspended and any chat partners are notified; the account unlocks or resumes upon the user’s return, providing easy protection with no user action required. Instead of or in addition to a password or other authentication technology, this solution offers strong protection of social network accounts, ensuring that only the true authorized user can edit their information and interact with others.
Social networks can implement biometric authentication in two different ways:
Mandatory: by requiring biometric authentication, social networks would create a strong deterrent to such activities and would greatly increase trust in their services.
Optional: users could be given a choice to use biometric authentication. Users authenticated biometrically could be regarded as "trusted users" for a safer social network. To further encourage use, sites could offer incentives such as access to premium features, bonus points or credits, or other extras suitable to the specific application.
