IOTA presents biometric authentication system
The IOTA Foundation has presented a new proof-of-concept for a biometric authentication system based on IOTA’s open source tangle technology. The project, called “IAMPASS”, will allow the palm of a person’s hand to be used as a means of identification and will be another milestone in the rapidly developing IOTA ecosystem and part of the Smart City Initiative.
IAMPASS technology scans the vein structure of a person’s hand to create a unique, verifiable identity that does not require the use of raw personal data. This allows organizations to create audit trails for access to highly secure environments or facilities. As you can see in the following demo, a server cabinet could be secured with IAMPASS technology.
iampass prototype ID x IOTA scenario: “access granted”
(registered user with access rights to this particular server rack)
Tamper proof audit log files:https://t.co/3aWEFAf0qS…#iampass…#iampass #IAM #identity #iota #tangle #audit #innovation #datacenter #security pic.twitter.com/hReHJpNLKZ– iampass (@i_am_pass) October 15, 2018
For enterprises, the solution is intended to provide a fast and decentralized solution for an authentication system that enables effective management and protection of growing user data volumes from connected and digital devices. From the user’s point of view, the solution offers significant advantages in terms of data protection and the security of one’s own data, as the IAMPASS software manages identity and access rights without the use of personal raw data, which is made possible by the use of zero-knowledge-proof concepts. In addition, the system should also bring significant cost savings for companies compared to traditional authentication systems.
Possible areas of application for the IAMPASS technology could be high-security environments such as data centers, airports and stadiums. On the other hand, simple access points for buildings, cars or smartphones can be secured. It would also be conceivable, for example, to combine it with the charging station for e-cars developed by ElaadNL to enable fully automatic charging and payment with IOTA.
Dominick Schiener, co-founder of IOTA, explained the importance of the biometric authentication system:
Identity is still one of the biggest unresolved issues as the inability to easily identify, verify and authenticate it leads to significant friction losses for users and service providers worldwide. Therefore, we are pleased with the IAMPASS Proof of Concept, which uses IOTA’s Distributed Ledger to not only make the identity portable, but also to enable users to access and own their own data. As such identity solutions mature, we will see that the IOTA ecosystem is an important technical puzzle piece for the introduction of distributed ledgers.
Toan Nguyen, Director of Business Development & Cloud Platform at IOTA, added:
Distributed ledger technologies are becoming a key component of new initiatives for smart cities and transformative digitization, especially in terms of data management and security. The unique design of the IOTA Tangle makes it ideal for the emerging security applications of digital identity and personal data in these connected environments. Together, we expect the IOTA ecosystem and IAMPASS to help drive the next phase of digital identity management for high-security environments such as data centers and the smart city.
The roadmap on the IAMPASS website says the solution is to be integrated into productive customer environments in the 3rd quarter of 2019. Before that, the production status for IOTA is to be reached in the 1st or 2nd quarter of 2019 and Qubic will be launched.
