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I need cash — beam me up!
Given the successful deployment and ready acceptance of biometrics elsewhere in the world, greater use of this technology in the US is inevitable.
December 10, 2014 by Richard Buckle — Founder and CEO, Pyalla Technologies, LLC
As I settled in to watch a little television Sunday evening, I caught a portion of "60 Minutes." Guess I should have known better and perhaps been more aware of the fact, but when an interviewee said that 97 percent of businesses had been hacked, I was shocked.
But then again, should I be surprised?
In a recent client letter I emphasized the growing importance of openness for HP. As one HP manager told me just recently, Hewlett-Packard Enterprise will not be about forcing customers to open their checkbook every time a new software solution is proposed.
Admirable, to say the least, but as IT departments everywhere are catching onto, open doesn't mean free, and when free is referenced, it's more to do with choice than cost.
However, it is also my observation that we are witnessing a desire for rigid oversight of open software — no matter the cost — with accountability thrown in for good measure. When you get beyond the inability of enterprises to consume updates on a daily basis, it becomes apparent that the real issue is security.
Whether we surround our data centers with the infamous "cone of silence" or simply protect them within a bubble akin to a Star Trek defensive shield, open source needs to offer a lot more than an easily accessed Web site.
I am a huge proponent of software "freedom of choice," even as I am a tad less enthusiastic about "free software," particularly for the enterprise user. The challenges are immense: The skills of the bad guys cannot be taken lightly and it will take sizable investments by knowledgeable developers to keep raising the bar higher.
Open is good — but it's a starting place. Access to inexpensive software — even where free — is good also, but it's really about the basic building blocks that smart software vendors then string together in an innovative (and supported) manner.
This message about how open software is helping some very serious vendors in the payments platform space was reinforced just a week ago at the 2014 HP NonStop Technical Boot Camp. Among the numerous payments platform vendors present was OmniPayments Inc., and the opportunity to catch up with CEO Yash Kapadia is always a delight.
When you scratch beneath the surface of the OmniPayments suite of products, you will find a considerable amount of open software. For NonStop hybrid implementation, there's a variety of Java and C / C++ code present and this has allowed Yash to embrace cloud computing rather readily.
However, when it comes to security, Yash doesn't mince his words, nor does he duck topics like EMV:
With the talk in the U.S. focused now more acutely on EMV smart cards, this is surely a step forward. Chip and PIN definitely offers a level of protection consumers have been looking for — anymore negative headlines concerning breaches this holiday season will scare aware the very market retailers are hoping to entice.
But it's just a start, and is an approach consumers should adjust to rather quickly as merchants deploy the much-needed EMV-supported terminals. However, following the introduction by Apple of improved fingerprint recognition together with our own experience in emerging markets — today, in Colombia, we have a fingerprint database of 3 million citizens — I am expecting to see more ATMs capable of operating on the basis of fingerprints here in the U.S., as well.
Even with the embrace of EMV and the relegation of signatures to the dustbin, I suspect that we will need a lot more proof of identity than a PIN when it comes to accessing cash.
Retailers want something simple and fast. But when it's all done and dusted, it's never going to be their responsibility, but rather that of participating banks, to bear the cost of fraud perpetrated on the merchant.
So financial institutions have to do more, and given deployment and acceptance of biometrics elsewhere — Poland and India have networks of biometric ATMs as do some nations in South America — greater use of biometrics in the U.S. is inevitable.
As Yash explained:
The point of all of this is to add layers to our defenses against the bad guys — their intentions have been made very clear. They will aggressively attack any door they find open and I see no let-up in their ambitions to pilfer identities and to access and empty consumer's accounts.
EMV, fingerprints, even two-factor verification soliciting multiple answers to challenge questions (usually via our mobile phone), are all gaining in popularity and quickly. Fortresses of old never relied on just the front gate and nor should we when it comes to our own money!
I am no math expert but I have to believe that, statistically speaking, 97 percent is pretty much everybody. And if we are all under attack then when it comes to getting cash, then about the only one I can trust to be me, is me.
If I need to be scanned in some fashion even as I present my smart card, then so be it. Perhaps that well known Sci-Fi phrase, "Beam me up, Scottie!" will one day be commonplace — and have less to do with returning to a space ship than with accessing a bank vault.
atm photo courtesy dennis wong | flickr
About Richard Buckle
Richard Buckle is the founder and CEO of Pyalla Technologies, LLC. He has enjoyed a long association with the Information Technology (IT) industry as a user, vendor, and more recently, as an industry commentator, thought leader, columnist and blogger. Richard participates in the HPE VIP Community where he is part of their influencer team.
