Mastercard Exploring Gait Recognition for Transit Fares

According to MarketWatch, payment provider Mastercard is working with transport firms to develop a system that would authenticate passengers based on their gait.

The system would be an alternative to using a physical transit pass, allowing passengers to access public transport networks via technology that would identify them by the way they walk.

In addition to gait recognition, Mastercard is also looking at other biometric identification methods like face, heartbeat and vein recognition for future transit payment systems.

“We are working with transport organizations where your face or gait will authenticate you,” Ajay Bhalla, president of cyber and intelligence solutions for Mastercard, told MarketWatch in an interview.

“The way you hold your phone, which ear you use, and how your fingers touch the buttons are all unique to you. We have been testing heartbeat, vein technology, and the way people walk to authenticate people,” he added.

For the gait recognition technology, closed-circuit cameras would identify passengers as they approach barriers, allowing them access as soon as they were recognized and their identity was matched to a valid payment account.

Biometric authentication for payments is considered an important tool to combat rising cases of fraud and cyber threats. The FBI released a report last week that showed that in 2019 in the U.S., as much as $3.5 billion has been reported lost from suspected cyber crimes.

Payment providers like Mastercard are working to develop secure authentication methods to provide their customers with the security they need, especially as more and more people migrate online for payment services and scammers turn to increasingly sophisticated methods.

Sophisticated attacks — defined as ones that focus on quality rather than volume — have reportedly grown by 430% since July, according to a study from Mastercard-owned NuData.

Source: MarketWatch

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February 19, 2020 – by Tony Bitzionis