#biometricchat on #biometrics and #cloudcomputing Chat Summary
Yesterday we were pleased to welcome Terry Hartmann (@TerryID) from Unisys (@unisyscorp) to discuss the topic of biometrics and cloud computing at our monthly Twitter chat on biometric technology. It was an excellent discussion surrounding the questions:
1. What are the driving reasons for storing biometric information in the cloud?
2. Will “Identity as a Service” ever get off the ground ?
3. Will future growth of biometric cloud computing come mainly from the private or public sectors?
4. Are there different security standards that should apply to biometric data stored in the cloud?
5. Where do you see the biggest future growth in the federal market for biometric solutions?
6. Will the growth of mobile technology look to biometrics as the user authentication security of choice?
Among all of the answers that Terry provided, a few highlights to share:
- Because so many federal agencies (FBI, DOD, Dept. Of Homeland Security) are accessing the same biometric data from different applications, storing this information in the cloud makes a lot of sense. Furthermore, another reason to store biometric information in the cloud is to facilitate separation of biographic and biometric data.
- In response to the question if “Identity as a Service” will ever get off the ground, Terry said that as more organizations move apps to the cloud, there is a greater need for security and 2-factor authentication and since many organizations don’t have the resources to roll out an id system on their own, this is where a managed service benefits them.
- Speculating on where the future growth of biometrics in the cloud would come from, Terry said the private sector would be the largest consumer, particularly large cloud based companies like Google and Amazon as they move to biometrics for tighter authentication security on their apps and databases.
- When asked whether different security standards should be applied to biometrics in the cloud, Terry said that all normal biometric standards (FIPS201, ISO 17974) should apply and did not indicate that he felt additional security standards would be appropriate.
- As far as where the future growth of biometrics would be in the federal market, Terry said that healthcare, particularly biometrics related to healthcare benefits to reduce fraud.
- Terry also confirmed that biometrics is quickly becoming the identificaiton/authentication security platform of choice for mobile devices.
Thank you again to Terry Hartmann for his time and to Unisys. Stay tuned to our blog for information next week about April’s #biometricchat.
