The Role of Biometrics in Cloud Computing
Cloud computing has become a new normal for most of the businesses. Nowadays, businesses of every size and industry are using different cloud computing applications. Gone are those days when cloud computing was an alien technology for a majority of businesses. There is no denial in the fact that cloud computing is the most hyped innovations of the modern-day era which works on the pay as you go model.
There are many advantages offered by cloud computing solutions like high uptime, mobility, reduced cost but one of the biggest challenges to this technology is security. From two-factor authentication to password and IDs, various security layers have been adopted on the cloud platform for enhancing the security of the cloud computing platform but most of them have turned to be ineffective. This is why the use of biometrics in cloud computing is gaining ground in terms of usage because it offers many advantages over traditional cloud security layers.
This blog post addresses the role of biometrics in cloud computing and how it helps in making the cloud system ultra-secured.
The Advantage of Biometric over Traditional Authentication Methods
Biometric has the potential of taking cloud computing to the next level as it enhances the overall security of the cloud platform and makes sure that only authorized people get access to the rendered services. In addition to enhanced security and access to only authorized personnel, biometric solution provides reliability and accuracy as well. The biometric system recognizes users on the basis of unique behavioral and psychological characteristics that can never be replicated and that’s why they are much better than traditional authentication methods. This is the reason why more and more businesses are turning to biometric authentication on the cloud platform instead of traditional authentication methods.
How Biometric Authentication is being Used on the Cloud Platform?
One of the main reasons why biometric authentication is so successful is it uses human traits that are unique to each individual. The traits like fingerprints and face recognition are used in biometric authentication and there is no other way one can access the cloud platform. Although both face recognition and fingerprint are used in biometric solution but the later one is more widely used. You should know that the concept of biometric first started with fingerprints and later on with the advancement of technology, face recognition also become a part of biometric authentication. The ridged and valleys of fingerprints are unique to each individual and that’s why it was the first mode of authentication used in biometric authentication.
When it comes to the cloud platform, then the cloud provider enrolls the cloud user in the biometric system for biometric authentication. During the process of authentication, multiple biometric fingerprints are enrolled and then saved in the form of templates at the cloud provider section. In order to access the cloud application, the user is required to provide his fingerprint which is matched with the templates stored by the cloud provider in the biometric system. If the fingerprint provided by the user matches with the templates stored by the cloud provider, then the user is granted access.
This is how the biometric system comes into action whenever a user accesses his cloud application. Upon the completion of successful authentication, the user is redirected to a genuine cloud service platform. It has been seen that users working on a cloud platform with a biometric system have lesser chances of becoming a victim of any type of security breach in comparison to those who use traditional authentication processes. Biometrics is being planned to be implemented to sensitive cloud applications such as QuickBooks cloud hosting to add an extra security for accounting data.
The Different Measures Adopted to Make Biometric Authentication More Secure
Encryption method
There is no denial in the fact that biometric solution is one of the most secure authentication methods but if someone gets access to the templates stored by the cloud provider then it can become a very serious problem. This is why the encryption method is used to make sure that even if an unauthorized person gets access to the fingerprints templates, it will be of no use to them. In the encryption method, the fingerprint templates stored at both cloud user and cloud provider’s end is encrypted.
Multi-finger security model
In order to enhance the security in biometric authentication, a system of multi-finger security model is used. In this unique model, the cloud user is required to register three fingerprint templates and then the user chooses a single digit for each fingerprint template. This type of biometric authentication makes cloud platform ultra-secure and words like unauthorized access become meaningless.
Security has been one of the most challenging issues on the cloud computing platform. Many people don’t move to the cloud platform because of the fear of unauthorized access. But with the introduction of biometric authentication on the cloud platform, the chances of unauthorized access are nullified.
