As threats to protected premises change and bad actors become more sophisticated and targeted in their attacks, managing employee and visitor access to businesses and facilities has become even more critical.

End-users need to control nonauthorized personnel, and they are tasked with gathering and retaining data on how authorized users access doors and occupy spaces. Because identity affects physical and cybersecurity controls, users need to be validated securely and possess the proper credentials.

More secure technologies

Mobile and biometrics offer systems integrators higher-security choices for their customers, especially in government, mission critical and other applications where accountability, compliance, regulations and recordkeeping controls are required. 

In addition to the higher levels of security, mobile access lends itself to easier credential provisioning and distribution. It readily integrates with access control software platforms, so specific permissions can be changed quickly across the enterprise. Controlled through the cloud, mobile credentials offer convenient programming and can be activated and deactivated immediately. Lost keys or cards (and the cost of rekeying or replacement) becomes a thing of the past.

With mobile credentials, access control readers communicate through Wi-Fi, Bluetooth or near field communication to the user’s smartphone—looking for the correct credential in the integrated database. Mobile communications are inherently secure because they offer multifactor authentication. The user’s phone is something they hold and must individually access to use the credentials and includes encrypted signals for data transfer. 

Now, in some cases, Apple, Samsung and Google Wallet are replacing traditional access control cards as employee badges, used similarly to how contactless mobile payments are conducted.

On the downside, privacy and potential misuse of personal data may still present roadblocks, as users may not want to activate apps on their personal phones, harboring concerns about monitoring activity.

The state of mobile and biometrics

According to HID’s “The Industry Report: 2023 State of Security and Identity,” digital ID adoption is accelerating rapidly and includes mobile IDs, which are stored and authenticated on mobile devices.

“Digital identities are an extension of physical ones; they offer a new way to securely verify who we are so we can transact safely, work productively and travel freely,” according to the report. “The acceleration of digital wallet adoption is expanding to use cases beyond just payments, including employee badges, driver’s licenses, national IDs and passports. Some 47% of integrators and installers indicate that their customers are using mobile identities for identity verification.”

The HID study also confirms that iris and facial recognition are “on the rise as reliable, contactless biometric modalities for both on-premises and remote authentication.” With biometrics come additional conveniences, and this seems to be alleviating some concerns over privacy—with 33% of respondents to the study indicating they plan to test or implement a form of biometrics within the next one to five years.

Biometrics is still bothersome

According to Precedence Research, the biometrics market is expected to be valued at more than $267 billion by 2033. Biometrics leverage unique physical or behavioral characteristics to identify and authenticate individuals and can include fingerprint, iris, face or voice recognition.

Early concerns over biometric applications centered on potentially violating privacy and civil liberties, and misidentifying people of color. Some U.S. cities have refused to embrace the technology, while the government sector and transportation industry are robust adopters.

At the University of Waterloo in Canada, smart vending machines that used facial recognition technology were removed because the machine displayed a facial recognition application execution code. The vending services company said the machine  detected faces so it would know when to activate for a purchase, but the technology didn’t capture or keep customer’s photos.

Collecting and keeping user data safe is an overriding issue for biometrics deployment. In May 2023, the Federal Trade Commission warned consumers of misuses of biometric information and harm, stating that biometric and related technology, including those leveraged by machine learning, raise consumer privacy and data security concerns and the potential for bias and discrimination.

For systems integrators and their customers, the total cost of ownership needs to be compared with card-based systems. Look for manufacturers that can help with tools that compare costs, which closely mirror your potential end-use. And remember that mobile and biometrics are based on a monthly subscription for services.

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