Passwords Won’t Secure Your Identity. Here’s What Will.

Our lives have migrated to a virtual world to the point where our emails have become an entry point to our identity. Medical records, employment history, education, world views and all that comes to mind, which pertains to who we are as people, likely have some form of digital footprint that can be traced back to us. While this can translate to seamless convenience, whether personalized recommendations or quick product deliveries, there remains a risk of exposure that threat actors constantly exploit.

The tech titans who handle our data and boast a robust security infrastructure are the same ones who lost control of our data. With 16 billion Apple, Facebook, Google and other passwords leaked, a large question mark looms over the reliability of traditional security systems. The centralized databases and login processes of yesteryear are simply unable to keep up with today’s increasingly sophisticated cyber threats. Our passwords and two-factor authentication fall short in securing our digital identities.

Related: Why Businesses Should Implement Passwordless Authentication Right Now

Digitization outpacing security

Digitization has become deeply entrenched in the fabric of how we operate as a society on a global scale, with 5.56 billion people online today and 402.74 million terabytes of data generated on a daily basis. The dizzying numbers demonstrate the breakneck speed with which every aspect of our lives has taken a virtual shape, and with it, the proliferation of the conversation about how we secure the digital world we have created.

With the current security measures in use, cybercrime is expected to cost over $639 billion in the United States this year, with the costs expected to balloon as far as $1.82 trillion by 2028. In light of such projected costs, the development of a secure infrastructure is a priority that requires immediate attention, one that could compromise digital identity if disregarded.

Decentralize to prevent compromise

The centralized databases of tech titans mean that there is one location, one source of truth, that if compromised, all that it contains is leaked, as was the case with the passwords that were leaked. If not a leak, then a ransomware attack that disrupts the systems on which our digital lives operate. This kind of disruption can cascade to fundamental services such as healthcare, as a recent ransomware attack caused a system-wide tech outage at a large network of medical centers in Ohio, cancelling inpatient and outpatient procedures.

Centralization’s single point of failure calls for a shift in how to operate tech infrastructures — a shift to decentralized data storage. Unlike centralized systems, blockchain networks distribute data across a large multitude of nodes that are in constant verification of one another through cryptographic consensus. To verify the data, the majority of nodes must be in agreement, a majority that rejects tampered “blocks” or compromised nodes. This means that there is no single repository that can be compromised, as attackers would need to compromise the majority of the nodes, a task immensely more challenging than the common compromise of a centralized server.

Related: Passwords Are Scarily Insecure. Here Are a Few Safer Alternatives.

Use the physical to verify the virtual

The beauty of blockchain technology is its ownership element. As everything is secured by cryptography, the only way to “decrypt” the data and access it is through your own private keys. However, if a threat actor is to gain access to your private keys, they also gain access to your data and funds, posing a threat that puts in question how secure the shift from centralized to decentralized storage really is.

If a private key is proof of one’s identity, then its loss equates to the loss of one’s digital identity, a compromise that can only be secured by undeniable proof that the owner of the keys is indeed who they claim to be. This is where biometric authentication becomes the final piece in the puzzle of securing one’s digital identity in a decentralized infrastructure.

Using one’s fingerprint in an offline environment for identity verification not only ensures ownership of data and its security but also prevents the exposure of biometric data to a server where it could be breached. This creates a new paradigm that deems passwords and two-factor authentication obsolete. Building on such a methodology opens pathways for a secure digital identity and KYC verification on a decentralized infrastructure, leaving no room for threat actors to compromise digital identities.

The conversation on digital security is the result of an absolute necessity in the face of increasingly sophisticated cyber attacks. However, adding uppercase letters, symbols and numbers to your password will not be enough. The added layer of two-factor authentication will not be enough either. More steps do not equate to more security. The future of security lies in an infrastructure shift from the centralized to the decentralized, protected by a layer of biometric authentication that ensures that one’s digital identity is secured.