Behavioral Biometrics Target Mobile Payments Arena

As mobile payments become more and more commonplace, authentication solutions that minimize the potential for fraud and malware attacks are becoming part of the basic requirements. That, of course, means moving beyond passwords. Biometrics are gaining steam in the arena, too, from Apple Pay’s fingerprint recognition capability to FIDO approaches.
 
Yet, single-characteristic approaches (i.e., a fingerprint) have been shown to be vulnerable to physical hacks, leveraging techniques like 3D printing and even wax molds. Biometrics specialist BioCatch has pioneered a cognitive biometric signature which takes into account a range of combined physiological factors, such as left/right handedness, press-size, hand tremor and eye-hand coordination, as well as behavioral traits, such as usage preferences and device interaction patterns. Contextual factors include device ID and geolocation, among others.
 
The company has been granted a patent for the approach, entitled “System, device, and method of detecting identity of a user of a mobile electronic device.” Specifically, U.S. Patent 8,938,787 B2b provides a method for confirming the identity of a mobile device user using behavioral biometrics, including: receiving touch data from a touch screen; receiving acceleration data from an accelerometer of a mobile device; correlating between the touch data and the acceleration data; and, based on the correlating of the data, generating a user-specific trait that will then be stored and used in subsequent sessions.
 
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