Escaping 'Password Hell': biometrics of IT and security

Microchip implants? Bring 'em on I say!

Peter Cochrane is Professor of Sentient Systems at The University of Suffolk, UK

Since the beginning of the industrial revolution, we have built systems and machines on the basis that people will just have to learn about the interface and adjust accordingly. The skill of the individual craftsman was overtaken and subverted by the expertise of the‘operator',the production line and mass production.

The upside was it enabled us all to do more and more with less and less, to raise living standards, the health and wealth of individuals and nations. In effect, humanity deferred to technology in order to meet the specific limitations and needs of the machines, but to the greater benefit of humanity!

We now stand at the cusp of a new era with AI and robotics capable of adapting to our individual and most specific needs. Machines can ‘bend' to meet our limitations and needs; to empower us as individuals and organisations to do and achieve even more. This is, as they say, progress with technology and people begetting ever more powerful technologies.

But there remains one last bastion of inconvenience and frustration centred on ID and security - often referred to as‘Password Hell'. We are all awash with multiple accounts, apps, cards, licences, visas, passports, badges, codes, PINs, passwords, usernames, IDs, logons, logins, entry and exit protocols, etc. It really is time to get all of this out of the domain of the human and into the realm of the machines.

Today we are in the process of migrating from a nightmare past of our own design, into a biometric world where machines recognise us and grant us access automatically. At the fringe some people (in Sweden for example) are already being chipped exactly in the same way our pets have been chipped for the past couple of decades.

Apart from the obvious advantage of not having to carry any money or ID of any kind, there is the assurance of extra safety, security and health support wherever we happen to be. Whilst it is unavailable right now, we can easily embed, or provide links to, our medical record into the same technology being used for ID chip implants. We, and not just our devices and possessions, can become a part of the IoT too!

Of course, many, will only see the threat of a looming dystopian future, and being chipped has to be a personal choice, but these technologies can offer greater convenience and security versus what we have today.

There is not a single technology that can cost-effectively equal the security level of a DNA sample, but the concatenation of several simple low-cost techniques can. If you want to spend £30k on a single iris scanner you can overtake DNA, but better to spend £1 to £5 on fingerprint, face, eye, voice and keying recognition to achieve the same result. Adding a chip implant of course dramatically reduces this list.

I would ask the naysayers to contemplate the advantages of this technology against the backdrop of the progress gained on social networks by giving up on total privacy. Embracing a sharing culture has transformed society and it is transforming leading-edge companies and education globally. So it goes in a world of no keys and locks, when doors of vehicle, access to home, office, plant and instant payment are a touch away. A world without passports, licences and cards where you get to control and set the rules. Bring it on I say!