The growth of e-commerce amid the COVID-19 pandemic has provided limitless opportunities for enterprises to publicize their brands. Online transactions became the norm in many economies as the need for lockdowns prevented people from going to physical stores. It is projected that the e-commerce industry will be valued at more than $5 trillion in 2021, slowly dominating the retail sector around the globe.
However, along with the rise of e-commerce is the further growth of cyberattacks in recent years. Traditional tricks, such as phishing and social engineering, are still prevalent, but bad actors combine them with tech-savvy tricks to exploit their target’s security measures. Pushing for the adoption of knowledge-based authentication alternatives has increased over the years, with industry leaders calling for a passwordless login solution.
But the increasing number of online crimes does not only happen in the private sector, as government institutions also face constant attacks from fraudsters. Taking advantage of other people’s benefits and the tons of classified data stored in physical and cloud servers have been the leading motives for attacking government organizations.
And one of the top targets of cyberattacks is the United States, which is home to some of the most powerful government firms and private companies. The constant increase in domestic and foreign digital crimes in the country led to its cybersecurity environment reaching its boiling point. President Joe Biden released a statute to help improve online security measures. Pursuant to Executive Order 14028, several institutions have called for a modern approach to cybersecurity.
For example, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has discouraged public and private firms from using SMS as an out-of-band authenticator. The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) has also expressed the need to discontinue authentication methods that do not resist phishing, such as one-time codes and push notifications.
This is vital since the US government faces threats from private swindlers and nation-backed ones. Earlier this year, there was a staggering 800% increase in Russian-backed cyberattacks after the US imposed multiple sanctions on Russia amid the conflict in Ukraine. Moreover, plenty of cybercrime groups have already expressed their support for Russia. This is why more harmful online attacks from hackers are already expected by authorities moving forward.
And one of the leading solutions to this is the adoption of biometric user verification. Several tech giants, such as Microsoft, Apple, and Google, have already allied to reduce reliance on vulnerable passwords. Using fingerprints and mobile facial biometric authentication can help guarantee that only authorized people are using a network.
To learn more about how facial biometrics can help protect America’s infrastructure against cyberattacks, check this article provided by authID.