Leidos’ public sector growth is a sign of the importance of biometrics – all CISOs should take note of innovations in the space

Biometrics will play a vital role in cybersecurity. Just look at the recent appointment of Leidos to handle a project with the UK Home Office, where the firm will be transforming critical elements of the country’s national biometrics systems supporting the UK’s security departments, including law enforcement, immigration services, and border control. The Home Office will unite its police and immigration biometrics programs under a single service-management structure in advance of a potential move into the public cloud. The appointment is indicative of the UK and other countries’ desires to improve their security through biometric technology—a common uptake among countries seeing more people than ever crossing their borders, both legally and illegally.

For CISOs, this means if they want to take security seriously, they must investigate and experiment with biometrics in their business, or they’ll find themselves lagging, staring through a gap in their offerings that can only be filled with pricy acquisitions.

The UK Home Office doubles down on biometrics to secure its IT estate, bringing in brains and brawn from Leidos

Leidos, a US Fortune 500 security services leader founded in 1969, now totals 33,000 employees offering multiple security solutions focused on defense, intelligence, homeland security, and health. It has grown off the back of increased demand for cybersecurity solutions and, more recently, the use of biometrics.

Leidos has a proven track record when it comes to security. The UK Home Office has secured an impressive partnership with this experienced vendor that already works with a number of US government departments, including the Department of Defense, the US Air Force, and the US Army—a strong color palette of security branches, to say the least.

Biometrics is not a fad—governments and enterprises alike looking to enhance their security are adopting it and taking it seriously

HFS has previously discussed the rise of biometric security and its growing adoption by enterprises. It’s now evident that biometric security isn’t going away soon and has become wildly accepted by policymakers and the general population; smartphones and banking are two mainstream examples.

Leidos has managed a successful partnership with the US government by developing the country’s border security defense. In partnership, Leidos has also pioneered biometric security infrastructure and scanning technology. The Leidos IDHaystack is a biometrics service that supports face, finger, and iris scans; its implementation has been widespread within US government departments, including the FBI.

Countries worldwide are currently looking to invest in greater biometric security, mostly because of the growing security threats of the modern world happening in conjunction with rising populations and migration rates. It is not uncommon to see biometrics employed in airports’ border control measures across the world. The main challenge that border control points face is processing people at speed while maintaining security—we’ve all been in long airport lines wishing that we didn’t have to take our shoes off or living in fear that the scanner will buzz as we pass through it. Sadly, biometrics can’t help with body scanners; but it does have the ability to speed up the overall experience and move you quickly through passport control. Self-service biometric gates allow for greater speed and accuracy while ensuring that the person using the gate is who they say they are.

Biometrics helps to solve key national security deficiencies—service providers must be assertive in urging states to apply their solutions

As discussed in previous HFS research, biometrics are unique to an individual, which is great for countries that want to monitor the flow of people crossing their borders. After all, passports or identity papers can be forged or sold online by criminals. Biometrics, on the other hand, cannot be replicated easily.

Leidos has successfully secured this contract, but it isn’t the only player in this market. One example is Accenture, which has successful biometric solutions and has deployed its technology in both Amsterdam Schiphol Airport and London Heathrow Airport. Accenture’s technology uses a smart gate in combination with an e-passport and facial recognition to check the identity of a traveler. Accenture’s initial trial was able to identify discrepancies in four travelers’ passports on the first weekend of its deployment, leading to the four travelers being denied access to cross the border—an undeniable win for biometric security.

The Bottom Line: Biometrics is a growing and lucrative market that service providers should be pioneering

Biometric security is, without a doubt, going to play a major part in the future of security. It holds several advantages, such as the quick processing of information and people against a unique and difficult-to-forge identity. The main drawback is securing and effectively guarding the biometric data that people entrust to the process—it’s a valuable target for cybercriminals. There is some kickback from people fearing for the security of their personal biometric data, and this is not an uncommon challenge for providers of biometric security to overcome.

Despite some hesitation about data security, the UK has established biometric solutions within its country. The main challenge Leidos and any other providers hoping to make strides in biometrics will face is integrating into systems that have already been developed. Major service providers’ experience breaking into the space will come into play and help facilitate easier transformations—all they need now is to build their capabilities, whether internally or via partnerships and acquisitions.