Biometrics and Your Safe Deposit Box

Biometrics is the measurement and statistical analysis of a person’s unique physical and behavioural characteristics. Quite simply, by combining biometrics and your safe deposit box you have greater protection against identity theft; and this should be a serious consideration for you if you are looking for the safest of places to store your valuable assets, documents, and properties. Though, when considering secure storage facilities, what level of biometric security works best?

Biometric identification measures come in varying forms and have undergone many developments and advancements over the years. However, not all providers of safe deposit boxes and private vaults employ the use of biometrics and most protocols used by institutions, including banks, are outdated and high risk.

Issues with Access Protocols in Banks

As an example, typically a bank requires a simple protocol for accessing their safety deposit boxes. It often begins with the client’s personal key, followed by using the bank’s master key, then by the client’s signature, and ends with entering a pin code or password. However, banks often don’t permit entry to the back of house where your safe deposit box is stored. Instead, a staff member on duty retrieves your requested item from your security box – a rather unnerving idea considering a different stranger could be handling your possessions during any given visit.

While the above may seem to be more or less adequate, times have changed and criminals have grown smarter and more tech savvy making this system obsolete, insecure and prone to human error. Bank attendants may mistakenly give access to the wrong person due to identity theft and altered signatures. This possible lapse in security could result in unauthorised access to safe deposit boxes and in illegal, fraudulent activity.

A State-of-the-Art Solution

Biometric systems have been utilised by various institutions worldwide because they focus on identifying individuals by their inherent and unique characteristics based on their physical features.

Therefore, biometric technology have traditionally offered a higher level of protection against fraud since the modalities used by these systems are non-transferrable, safe from guesses, offer non-repudiation benefits since no two individuals have the same patterns on their body, and are only limited by the quality and standard of the system design.

The above means that by using biometric technology, a business like a secure storage facility is able to offer you a better level of customer service and a higher standard of security.

The most common types of biometric systems are palm vein recognition, fingerprint recognition, iris recognition, voice authentication. On the top end of all the technologies is 3D facial recognition technology.

Facial Recognition (FR): A Top Choice of Biometrics

In a research paper written by two European professors , it was noted that:

“Badge or password-based authentication procedures are too easy to hack. Biometrics represents a valid alternative but they suffer of drawbacks as well. Iris scanning, for example, is very reliable but too intrusive; fingerprints are socially accepted, but not applicable to non-consentient people. On the other hand, face recognition represents a good compromise between what’s socially acceptable and what’s reliable…”

The latest FR technologies use a 3D camera to project light onto you while the camera’s sensors trace the features and shape of your face, storing this information as a point of reference for verification. This means that 3D FR technologies can achieve far greater accuracy than previous 2D versions and other versions of biometrics. 

The advancements that separate the methods, have allowed 3D FR to provide users with a more efficient, secure, safe and personalised process, which when combined with traditional security measures like a PIN code becomes even more effective. This not only makes FR the most thorough method of authentication, but also an extremely quick, convenient and secure way to verify your identity.

Biometrics will Define Your Choice of Storage Facility

At Private Vaults Australia (PVA) we offer you secure access control by combining 3D FR, a pin code, an exclusive access key, a guarded escort and private viewing rooms at the back of house. To learn more about Biometrics and Your Safe Deposit Box, contact PVA or read the PVA blog for more interesting news, tips and ideas to guide you.

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