DEUTSCHE BANK: Killing passwords is the future of security
The Financial Times reports that the bank is looking at replacing passwords with biometric security that measures 50 different factors including location data, how you hold your phone, thumbprint technology, and facial recognition. Deutsche Bank is working with company Callsign on the technology.
The idea is that by looking at a number of metrics, rather than just a simple password, the bank can be more sure that it is the account holder actually accessing the service.
The FT quotes Nick Doddy, Deutsche's regional innovation manager, as saying:
If you've broken your right arm and … you're at home and now you're using your left hand, it will say her location is good, her pin is good, her biometric is good, but she's now handling it in a different way, so it might say 'give me a facial recognition'.
Deutsche Bank is currently trialling the technology and could roll it out to high-value clients and businesses, allowing them to more easily move big sums of money. Usually anything above a certain transaction limit requires sign-off from the bank but Deutsche are confident this new level of security could negate the need for this.
A number of banks are moving towards this sort of holistic online security approach that shuns passwords. MasterCard is experimenting with "Selfie Pay", a form of facial recognition security, and Nordic banks are already using similar technology to the type Deutsche Bank is playing around with courtesy of Swedish startup BehavioSec.
BehavioSec CEO Neil Costigan told Business Insider back in June: "You're quite consistent in reflex stuff. If you think of all the input, there's quite a lot going on, particularly when you get to mobile. That's where we get out secret sauce from."