Convenience to drive security innovation

Innovation in security technology this year will be driven by customers demanding more convenient services, according to Unisys.

The IT services provider said in a report the demand for more convenient consumer experience in services provided by both governments and businesses will drive faster and easier security processes.

Organizations will have to factor this into their services, in addition to privacy which will remain "critical" in ensuring consumer trust.

Mike Webber, manager enterprise security for Unisys Asia-Pacific said: "Consumer confidence is the new currency, and convenience is now a major factor in that confidence."

Webber added while people have accepted the need for security processes to be in place, an experience that is "faster, easier and less cumbersome" is also a significant factor in winning user acceptance.

"Whether it be faster processing of travelers at airports, more confidently verifying an Internet or phone banking customer's identity, or providing access to your services in more customer-friendly ways, we believe the focus in 2009 will be on putting the consumer first."

An example of a technology facilitating a more convenient experience will be seen in "on the move" systems, which will evolve to identify individuals at checkpoints or from a distance. Unisys predicts innovations in iris and facial recognition-capable equipment to be rolled out this year in line with this trend, which allow verification to be done at a distance so bottlenecks at checkpoints can be cleared faster.

Unisys' latest security index found 29 percent of Malaysians, 23 percent of Hong Kong residents and 69 percent of Australians happy to give banks, government or other "trusted organizations" their iris pattern in order to protect against identity theft.

Another trend that will evolve this year will see security systems being able to collate information from disparate sources to piece together more informed decisions, said the report.

This application will theoretically allow close circuit TV cameras to be able to match facial images against databases outside of the organization, helping to enforce identity management.