Apple’s Touch ID fingerprint-scanning is paving the way for commonplace biometric integration into mobile devices, says Phillip Redman in an article for Wired. Redman, who is VP of Mobile Solutions and Strategy at Citrix, an organization specializing in online workspace integration, is optimistic about the future of mobile biometric security, but also cautions that Touch ID is an added layer of security to the general security protocols already in place, not a replacement of them.
Touch ID is, of course, the fingerprint-scanning technology that Apple introduced with the release of the iPhone 5S last fall. At first it was mostly there to authenticate users for iTunes purchases, but it’s making waves now as Apple begins to allow third-party developers to use the technology in combination with the phone’s NFC chip for secure, wireless payments. Retailers are scrambling to integrate NFC readers at their POS terminals in anticipation of consumers’ widespread adoption of the new Apple Pay payment solution.
Redman notes that this technology offers many conveniences in the mobile world, such as a shift in focus from device-wide security to app-specific security, use of biometric scanning for VPN authentication, and one-touch autofills for online forms.
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