What is biometric authentication?
Biometric authentication allows to identify a person by their unique biometric features. A range of unique human body characteristics such as the fingerprint or the iris pattern can be used for biometric authentication. In fact, biometrics is the ultimate way to identify a person, since it ensures that only the true owner of the account can get access to it.
The SafeTok system uses a person's fingerprints for biometric authentication. It is the most secure and reliable type of personal biometrics that is commercially available today. Fingerprint verification is the third and most secure factor in the SafeTok system and ensures that only you can get access, even if both SafeTok device and password are stolen.
The SafeTok Biometric protection
To log-in with SafeTok Biometric, just swipe your finger over the fingerprint sensor. That's it! Your fingerprint will be verified and you will be logged in.
SafeTok Biometric also provides you with more a advanced protection than just a log-in check.
It will allow you to control and authorize all kinds of important actions with you fingerprint.
For example, suppose that you are using online banking and you wish to transfer some money.
SafeTok will show you a transaction summary and ask you to confirm it by swiping your finger.
If you notice that some transfer information is incorrect, you can always choose to reject it.
This way you always know exactly what you are authorising. Even if you leave the computer unattended after logging in, no important actions can be performed without your approval.
SafeTok keeps your fingerprints safe
Theoretically biometrics make it impossible for anyone but the true owner to get access to the account. However, traditional fingerprint systems work by scanning the user’s fingerprint and sending it to the central authentication server, where the fingerprint image is actually verified.
Unfortunately, this creates a major security flaw: an attacker can also get your fingerprint image and then use it to log in to your accounts.
In the SafeTok system, your fingerprints are stored only on the device. The SafeTok Biometric device will check your fingerprints locally and will only inform the server, whether the provided fingerprint is correct.
This design has two important advantages over the traditional approach:
1. An attacker cannot use a copy of your fingerprint image to log in
2. Your fingerprints are always safely with you on your SafeTok device.
The SafeTok biometric USB stick
In order to use SafeTok Biometric, you will need a biometric USB stick with a built-in fingerprint sensor, like SafeTok biometric USB stick.
The SafeTok biometric USB stick comes already with SafeTok software preloaded, which makes it much more convenient to use with SafeTok, especially for beginner users. Finally, with the SafeTok biometric USB stick you do not need to worry about any possible security or compatibility issues. Just connect it to the computer, swipe your finger to log-in and no more worries.
Go passwordless with SafeTok Biometric
The fingerprint verification in SafeTok Biometric already protects user accounts from all attacks. It ensures that only the true owner can log-in to the account and perform important actions.
In fact, this makes passwords redundant, because they do not make the system more secure.
So why not abolish passwords? Doing so has several advantages:
1. Lower costs - passwords are paradoxically expensive (e.g. forgotten password recovery)
2. Increased availability - how many users cannot find their credit card PIN, when they need it
3. Increased productivity - swiping a finger is faster and more natural than typing a password