TSB claims to be the first in Europe to introduce iris recognition to its mobile banking app

Imagine logging onto your bank account just by glancing at your phone. That’s what some TSB customers will be able to do from September when the bank introduces iris recognition to its mobile banking app. It will be the first bank in Europe to introduce the technology, but its arrival will test customers’ trust in biometric technology.

Customers will need the latest Samsung Galaxy S8 to use the new way of accessing their TSB accounts. Once they have registered their irises, they will be able to log in by simply looking at the phone.

TSB’s chief information officer Carlos Abarca said iris recognition was the most secure form of biometric authentication currently available. „It takes advantage of 266 different characteristics, compared with 40 for fingerprints.”, (which the bank already currently applies through Apple Pay’s TouchID).

He said it offered customers a combination of security and convenience: „It’s extremely fast – it takes less than a second to get in – and the gesture is very natural. And you don’t have to remember secret numbers or passwords.”

“Iris recognition allows you to unlock your TSB mobile app with a simple glance, meaning all of those IDs, passwords and memorable information become a thing of the past,” he says. “We want our mobile app customers to continue to have a fast, easy-to-use experience; iris recognition delivers that and, when combined with our other security measures, an unparalleled level of cyber security.”

The integration of iris recognition comes just months after the bank revamped its mobile app using a new agile IT platform, dubbed Proteo4UK.

Samsung added iris scanning to the biometric security options, alongside face recognition and fingerprint scanning, when the phone went on sale earlier this year.

Fooling the scanner
In May the German hacking group the Chaos Computer Club said it had fooled Samsung’s iris scanner with a photo used to make a dummy eye. Samsung insisted that it would take an extraordinary set of circumstances, where someone had access to both the phone and a high definition photo of its owner’s eye, to beat its system.

TSB’s Carlos Abarca said he was confident in the security of iris scanning: „There’s no security option that is absolutely perfect. We’re relying not only on the biometrics but the digital certificate on the phone. To fake your eyeball is potentially possible – but it is extremely difficult.”

TSB customers can already log on to their mobile banking app using fingerprint recognition. The minority with a high-end Samsung may try out iris scanning when it becomes an option in September.

Source: BBC