With the world going cashless, the digital payments are making its way to the mainstream mode; card payments holding a huge share in the digital mode. Currently, we use PIN and password to authorize a payment. But these modes are now old profiled compared to the more secured mediums such as fingerprint scan, facial scan, iris scan. Mastercard captured the concern and introduced credit cards with the fingerprint scanner built at the top right.
The new biometric cards with fingerprint scanner are no thick in comparison to the old cards. The cards work with all the current chip and PIN reading consoles, claims the company. Currently, the new finger scanner bearing cards are being trialled at South Africa. The company plans the next trail in the Europe and Asia-Pacific regions in the coming months. The full roll-out of the card is expected at the end of this year.
The Chief of Security of Mastercard Ajay Bhalla said that the new fingerprint card would offer customers additional convenience, rapid transfer, and high security. But recently we found that even fingerprint scan is not an extremely safe mode. The fingerprint scanning system of the high-tech consoles are also vulnerable and can be hacked in less than five attempts. So we cannot purely call fingerprint scanning a safe mode. As when someone hacks your fingerprint once, they would have it forever. You then cannot change it like you do with your PIN and Passwords.
But according to the experts, the fingerprint scanning is way more secure than PIN and passwords. The biometric cards combining chip technology with fingerprints will help us tackle the threats. For instance, you are obviously not cutting your finger and giving it to the thief. PIN was bit easy medium for the thieves to retrieve it by bullying. Also digitally, fingerprint hacking is far difficult than hacking the passwords.
The contact less (PIN less) way to make payments provides very fast service. But there are certain security risks in the contactless mode as we do not perform authentication process. Combining the contactless bank card with the biometric finger print card will enable speedy payments and more secure transaction.
The implementation of new biometric card is very simple. The cardholder should enrol their card by registering to their financial institution. After the registration process, the fingerprint is encrypted into a digital template form which will be embedded on the card. You then will be able to use the card at any EMV card terminal globally.
The biometric card containing fingerprint sensor makes shopping and in-store payments very convenient and rapid. The cardholder dips the card in the retailer’s terminal and places his finger on the sensor. The fingerprint is verified then and if the biometrics is matching, your transaction will become successful. The process does not demand the card to get away from the customer’s hand.
Mastercard has previously trialled the face recognition mode for the payments by launching a ‘selfie pay’ app last October. With the technological advancement, the security is a must. Be aware and enroll yourself for the more secure mode by Mastercard.
