Securing biometric data

The use of biometric technology is expanding into smartphones, government facilities, and financial institutions. In addition to the growing popularity, there are also concerns about the level of security associated with biometric systems, along with the repositories that hold biometric data.

In recent years, there have been a number of high-profile data breaches on systems that contained sensitive data, passwords, and biometric data.

Some of those notable cyberattacks were as follows:

• 2019 – BioStar 2 suffered a breach of a database containing 28 million fingerprint and facial recognition records.
• 2016 – The Philippines’ Commission on Elections (COMELEC) was the victim of a compromised website. The hackers were able to gain access to the Personally Identifiable Information (PII) and biometric data of 55 million registered voters.
• 2015 – The United States’ Office of Personnel Management (OPM) suffered...