Biological Bank ID can be potentially deadly
ABC Nyheter (ABC News)
Thursday August 4, 2016
We are not only running the risk of being robbed of money, our biological data may also be stolen.
Civil Engineer Harald Marthinussen is wary of the fact that in future, we may have to identify ourselves using our real biological data, for example our finger prints. In February, The Norwegian Center for Information Security (NorSIS) reported that 150,000 Norwegians had been a victim of identity theft in the last two years.
Every single day, we log on to a two-digit number of apps and web sites, using passwords, personal identity numbers, code devices or codes. This first generation of digital ID methods is now gradually being replaced by other solutions.
In future, you will identify yourself online using real biological data. For example, when logging on to the Inland Revenue Service or other tax and business reporting services such as Altinn, you will have to reveal your biological ID in a mobile app, using either your finger prints, the sound of your voice or a selfie. You will then be automatically logged in, without entering a code.
This technology comes with a risk: You may suffer a premature «digital death» if your biological ID is stolen.
Just recently, Mastercard has made it possible in 17 countries to approve mobile payments by taking a selfie with your mobile. They will also use everything from fingerprints to voice recognition to offer the safest way of identifying the person paying – without considering the implications of biological identification. This should worry us. Not only do we risk losing money, which Mastercard will have to compensate us for, we are also running the risk of letting our biological data getting into the wrong hands.
Microsoft is another major actor going away from passwords and codes by using biological ID methods in the new Windows 10. This trend will become more and more prevalent in the years to come. We are already having problems securing our digital identity with all the information we need to remember. On average, every single one of us has to remember 20 to 30 user names, passwords and access codes. And only a select few can truthfully say they have the memory this takes. Most of us have to write down the codes, e.g. in a password organizer on the mobile – or simply use the same code for everything.
Passwords stored on your mobile can be stolen. 150,000 Norwegians have been victims of ID theft, and in the United States, the classified documents of 21.5 million public servants were recently stolen. The conclusion to be drawn from this is that no databases are 100 % secure. And neither are mobile phones.
The world leading technology web site TechCrunch was hacked by the same group that assumed responsibility for breaking into Mark Zuckerberg’s Facebook and Twitter accounts, and making the «Pokémon Go» servers come to a grinding halt. This only goes to show that even the best cannot escape the threat of hackers.
We are drowning in a sea of life-critical apps – which we cannot even find in life-threatening situations
Within 2018, at least 50 per cent of us will use the mobile for most everyday tasks. The mobile phone will literally open doors. It will give access to trains, museums, cinemas, and your workplace. You will pay for drinks, withdraw cash and pay private debt using the mobile – while at the same time sharing a lot of this information with other people’s mobiles.
Having to use so many apps also poses a personal safety problem. Since 2008, 1.5 million new apps have been introduced to the market. Most mobile users have more than 20 apps stored on their phones, and use four to six of them daily. In other words, we are drowning in a sea of «life-critical» apps we will not even be able to find when faced with a life-threatening situation.
In Europe, nearly 1,640,000 people work in the app industry. Norway has Europe’s second largest app industry seen in relation to its number of inhabitants, with 41,000 employees working on new apps every day. The great number of apps compromises the security of our digital ID even more.
Many of these apps are now starting to use biological identification. A clever hacker can steal anything from your mobile phone, even if it is locked with a code – and even if the information is encrypted. Recent reports say that American authorities purchased solutions from hackers to be able to break into the iPhone of the killer in San Bernadino.
When American authorities so easily can buy this type of tools, how do we know that IS, Mossad, al-Qaida, Iran, North-Korea or common criminals are not doing the same?
Can the entire population become digitally dead to Google and MasterCard?
You are putting your biological data at risk if you, like many iPhone users, have registered your fingerprint on your mobile. In one of their technical seminars, Google demonstrated that they were able to identify the drivers of cars passing a roadside camera by comparing their faces to all the faces in their global data storage facilities.
Norwegian authorities save and store your picture and fingerprint whenever you renew your passport. If the Norwegian national, public databases are hacked as they were in the US, and the personal data of 5.6 million people, including facial photos and digital fingerprints, are stolen, we are not only digitally dead when it comes to using the recorded fingerprints. We can also become digitally dead to both MasterCard’s «selfie payment», as well as to Google’s facial recognition.
But as opposed to a username or password, your fingerprint or face cannot be replaced. If the publicly stored passport information gets into the wrong hands, this may cause the digital end of a whole nation.
Can biological national and bank ID cause a premature «digital death» for you?
As we usually trust banks, credit card companies and public authorities to secure our valuables, the resistance towards using biological ID will not be noticeable until a sufficient number of people have had their fingers burnt by losing vital biological identities forever. It took 15 years before many enough had felt the effects of careless handling of viruses. Compared to this, it will take only two years before today’s introduction of biological ID will have to be replaced by more personally safe, cyber- biological, universal reading solutions.
We have to use Cyber Biologic ID Readers, CB-ID Readers, as «simulated copies » of your biological identities, e.g. cyber eye-iris, cyber fingerprint, cyber face (selfie) and cyber voice recognition. The CB-ID Readers must be small, portable, self-contained smart units offering the user a choice of which CB-ID to use for different services. A Personal secure Cyber biologic Universal portable reader – a PCU – must, unlike all other readers in today’s mobiles, PC’s and gadgets, be cleared after each identification, so that nobody can access your personal cyber data if the unit is stolen or hacked. This will prevent hackers from using biological fingerprints to steal people’s personal data from millions of smart phones in the near future. According to Harald Marthinussen, being personally in control of how to safeguard oneself against future identity theft is the only way forward in a complicated digital future.
Personal Secure control of our own identity is the only solution
Data processing and electronic communication did not become a general success until the PC entered the scene in the 1980s, and the Internet put the individual person in the spotlight during the 1990s.
Being personally in control of how you wish to safeguard yourself against future identity theft is the only solution for an otherwise complicated digital future. Your own personal, portable and unique CB-ID ensures that your real biological data are not misused by banks, credit card companies, public authorities, or other suppliers with strict identification requirements.
The personal CB-ID conceals your real biological data, giving you both an easy and accurate identification method, as well as far better protection against hacking in existing and future solutions. This is achieved by securing and encrypting scanned data with anti-cyber attack software, and 256 bit or higher TM or AES type encryption using a 12-digit production number. Leading Nordic patents from companies such as Idex, Next Biometric, Zwip, Fingerprint and PCU Company can be utilized in combination with solutions from Mcash, MobilePay, Vipps and Get-swish to create the best solutions for the future of Personal CB-ID.
Nordic inventions, patented back in 2012 in 40 countries including China, Hong Kong, USA, EU and Canada, should be able to secure our future within two years.
Both Google and credit card companies like Visa, Mastercard and Amex agree that plastic cards, codes and passwords will soon be replaced by smart little units encased in a piece of jewelry or a small gadget holding your Cyber Biologic ID readers. Every person’s Cyber Biologic ID is unique and individual, but is not identical to your real biological data. Therefore, a CB-ID can be replaced if stolen, and your digital life can always be renewed – allowing you to emerge as a whole new cyber person ready to move on with your life.