Biometric security

Biometric technology – the use of fingerprints, iris scans or voice recognition for user identification – is seen as a more secure option that passwords. But can it really beat the hackers?

Not always, reports Aarti Shahani, from a security conference in San Francisco.

Hackers have already made dummy fingerprints — using pictures of people’s hands available online — to swipe into the iPhone 6 scanner, he says.

And that may be worse than a stolen password, according to David Cowan, whose firm Bessemer Venture Partners has invested $100 million in digital security companies – but not in biometrics.

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