👋 Welcome to This Week’s Issue
Biometrics have long been marketed as the “passwords of the future.” Fingerprints, face scans, and voiceprints promise frictionless logins and near-foolproof identity verification. But unlike passwords, biometrics come with a stark reality: once compromised, they can’t be reset.
This week, we’re examining the growing backlash against biometrics — from data breaches exposing fingerprints to AI tools that can clone voices with uncanny accuracy. The question is no longer whether biometrics can be hacked, but how organizations can mitigate the risks when they are.
🔍 Biometric Theft in the Real World
Biometric theft is no longer theoretical. High-profile incidents have demonstrated the real-world consequences of stolen or leaked biometric data:
OPM Breach (2015): The U.S. Office of Personnel Management reported that 5.6 million fingerprints were stolen in a federal breach (OPM release). The long-term implications remain a concern, as those fingerprints cannot be “changed.”
Aadhaar Database Leaks (India): India’s massive biometric ID system has faced multiple data exposures. In 2018, journalists demonstrated how Aadhaar records could be accessed for as little as $8 (The Guardian). With over 1 billion citizens enrolled, the scale of risk is unparalleled.
Voiceprint Theft: AI-driven scams are leveraging stolen voice data to impersonate executives and demand fraudulent payments. The FBI IC3 has repeatedly warned about the rise of synthetic voice scams (IC3 PSA).
These incidents highlight a critical issue: biometric data, once stolen, is permanently compromised.
🔒 The Impossibility of Resetting Biometrics
Passwords can be rotated. Tokens can be revoked. Biometric identifiers, however, are immutable. If a database containing fingerprint templates or facial scans is breached, those identifiers remain valid for life.
This introduces unique risks:
Permanence: A stolen fingerprint could theoretically be used decades later in a spoofing attack.
Cross-domain exposure: Unlike passwords limited to specific accounts, biometrics can be reused across multiple systems (e.g., border control, financial services, corporate access).
Centralized storage: When biometric templates are stored in large databases, the “honeypot” effect increases the impact of a single breach.
NIST emphasizes that biometric authentication must always be paired with additional factors precisely because of this reset problem (NIST SP 800-63B).
🎭 Biometric Spoofing with AI
Even without a breach, biometrics are vulnerable to spoofing attacks. Advances in AI have made these attacks increasingly practical:
Deepfake Faces: Researchers have demonstrated the ability to bypass facial recognition systems using high-resolution photos and AI-generated deepfake videos (MIT Technology Review).
Voice Cloning: AI tools can replicate a voice with just a few minutes of audio. Criminals have already used cloned voices to defraud companies out of millions (Forbes).
3D Mask Attacks: Low-cost 3D printing has enabled attackers to produce masks capable of tricking some facial recognition systems.
The arms race between biometric systems and spoofing techniques is accelerating, raising concerns about the reliability of biometrics as a sole authentication factor.
⚖️ The Backlash: Trust and Regulation
As biometric adoption has scaled, so has scrutiny:
Public Backlash: Civil liberties groups have warned about privacy abuses in government use of facial recognition (EFF).
Regulatory Response:
The EU’s GDPR treats biometric data as “special category” information, requiring explicit consent and strict handling.
In the U.S., Illinois’ Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA) has resulted in lawsuits against companies mishandling biometric data (ACLU).
For enterprises, the risk is not just technical but reputational and legal. Mishandling biometrics can lead to regulatory fines, lawsuits, and erosion of trust.
🔮 The Future of Biometrics – Balancing Risk and Reward
Biometrics are not inherently “bad.” They offer clear advantages:
Convenience: No need to remember complex passwords.
Uniqueness: Harder to guess than traditional credentials.
Frictionless UX: Adoption is strong in consumer devices (e.g., smartphones, laptops).
But the risks are equally clear:
Irreversibility: A compromised biometric cannot be reset.
Spoofing: AI reduces the barrier to realistic attacks.
Privacy risks: Centralized databases increase exposure.
Mitigations on the horizon:
Liveness detection (detecting signs of life, like blinking or blood flow, to block spoofing).
Continuous authentication (ongoing verification beyond a single login event).
Decentralized storage (keeping biometric data local on devices rather than central servers).
Balanced guidance from NIST and CISA recommends biometrics only be used as part of multi-factor authentication, never as the sole factor (CISA).
🔗 Everykey Perspective
At Everykey, we recognize the strengths and weaknesses of biometrics. They can enhance security, but relying on them alone creates systemic risks.
That’s why many organizations are exploring alternatives like passkeys — cryptographic credentials designed to replace passwords and resist phishing (Everykey: Passkeys Explained) — and proximity-based authentication, which pairs convenience with strong cryptography (Everykey: Introduction to Authentication).
The future of identity security will likely be hybrid: biometrics for convenience, paired with cryptographic methods for resilience.
💡 Unlocked Tip of the Week
If you’re deploying biometrics, always pair them with another factor. A fingerprint or face scan should unlock only part of the process — adding MFA, a PIN, or a proximity device creates the resilience that biometrics alone can’t provide.
🙋 Author Spotlight
Meet Kwaku Boohene - Software Engineer
Kwaku Boohene is a software engineer with over five years of experience building scalable servers and systems. He specializes in authentication and web security, with expertise in implementing modern solutions that enable seamless single sign-on (SSO) and secure delegated access to user resources. With a passion for performance, usability, and resilient design, he enjoys creating solutions that balance strong protection with a seamless user experience.
✅ Wrapping Up
Biometrics are not going away. Their convenience ensures they will remain part of the authentication landscape. But IT leaders must approach them with clear eyes: they are powerful, but not invincible.
The risks — permanent compromise, spoofing, regulatory exposure — demand that biometrics be deployed as one factor among many. A truly resilient identity strategy blends biometrics with other methods like MFA, passkeys, and device-based proximity authentication.
Stay aware. Stay protected. And remember: your fingerprints, face, and voice are priceless. Treat them that way.
Till next time,