Fingerprints CEO Adam Philpott interview with IEEE Biometrics Council

Fingerprints CEO Adam Philpott was recently interviewed by the IEEE Biometrics Council, read this interesting interview below or visit IEEE Biometrics Council webpage for more information. The full newsletter and interview can be found here (page 23-27).

EXPERT PERSPECTIVES: Adam Philpott Interview conducted by Dr. João Neves, Assistant Professor of Computer Science at the University of Beira Interior, Covilhã, Portugal

Neves: You have recently been appointed as the CEO of Fingerprint Cards after building a proven track record in the management of cybersecurity companies. What advantage do you think this background will bring to your new role?

Philpott: Throughout my career, there are three core pillars that have evolved for me and apply to my role at Fingerprints:
1. Customer centricity – I’ve spent a significant portion of my career working directly with customers. As a result, customer centricity has been deeply ingrained into my leadership style. Business is a value exchange, underpinned by empathy towards the challenges our customers face. We must be relentless in tracing all our objectives and strategy to the wants and needs of our customers and potential customers.
2. Leadership – Of course, my role will focus on creating a clear vision for the short- and long-term future of Fingerprints. I also want to share my skills and experience internally, to empower our workforce to become leaders in their own right. Only by doing this will we be fully equipped to fulfil our customers’ needs at every level, across business units.
3. Identity – Security was historically underpinned by the ‘trust but verify’ model. In today’s digital world, this has changed to one of ‘zero trust.’ Identity has been thrust into the heart of the cybersecurity spotlight. I want to use my own and Fingerprints’ wealth of identity experience to address today’s number one cybersecurity vulnerability: passwords.

Neves: Even though you have only been CEO for a couple of months, you have previously been on the Board of the company. So, considering that fingerprinting is one of the most mature biometric recognition modalities, can you tell us the main challenges and innovations that Fingerprint Cards have focused on in the last years?

Philpott: I joined the Board in May 2023 because I was fascinated by what Fingerprints has already done in the market. But what interests me even more is where the company is going. In the face of rapid and all-encompassing digitization, legacy identity security, authentication and access methods have become hopelessly outdated. There are countless ways in which we interface with both the physical and digital worlds, and passwords and PINs are a significant part of this. Yet, passwords and PINs are simply no longer able to meet today’s digital security challenges. According to a recent survey of the causes of data breaches, 80% of computer hacks and cyber-crimes can be traced back to compromised passwords (see survey here).  Our mission has been, and will continue to be, to create a secure and frictionless user authentication experience for the myriad of different ways in which we engage with the digital world. Due to continued digitization, the opportunities to apply this are endless. The mobile, PC, access control, and payment industries are already wise to the value of biometrics. Over the coming years, we expect to leverage existing and new modalities to consolidate these markets. This could include expansion into new and exciting ecosystems across physical and logical access in our homes and buildings, and even across the internet worlds of mixed, augmented and virtual reality.

Neves: Apart from fingerprint recognition, the company has also developed products based on other biometric modalities, such as iris images. Based on the different solutions advertised in the website (e.g., access control in buildings, PC and mobile-device authentication), it seems that the company has been primarily focused on constrained and cooperative scenarios. Has the company ever tried to develop biometric recognition products capable of operating in unconstrained scenarios in which the user does not explicitly cooperate with the acquisition system?

Philpott: We place the customer at the center of product strategy. Within the current market, user appetite for constrained, cooperative solutions remains high. Over years of familiarization, consumers are now comfortable with, and value, this kind of biometric solution, such as fingerprint or IRIS recognition in our phones. This is not to say that our focus will not expand beyond constrained and cooperative solutions. As a company that prides itself on its roots in R&D, we’re constantly looking at how we can thoughtfully expand our offerings to include new and innovative solutions. Our new biometric platform strategy will aim to incorporate a variety of constrained/unconstrained and cooperative/uncooperative solutions for a range of existing and new use-cases.

Neves: Staying on the topic of innovation, we would like to know if your research team is a big part of the company, and how important the latest advances in the field of biometrics are to the company. Also, what is the company’s relationship with the academic community working on the topic?

Philpott: Since our foundation in 1997, research has been essential to the growth of the company. I’d argue Fingerprints invented modern and scalable capacitive fingerprint sensing, and this has required extensive R&D investment. This focus on research will not change now. Current market conditions and the economic climate have placed constraints on capital, and by proxy, R&D investment. Yet we know that innovation and research requires risk. We’ve therefore updated our governance model to be more efficient and agile. This enables us to focus on priority innovation areas, but still allows for risk in pursuit of new solutions as market and consumer needs continue to evolve. Over recent years we’ve also created new, and nurtured existing, relationships with strategic and academic partners, as well as industry talent. Last year we joined the World Economic Forum´s “New Champions Community” as its first biometrics company member (see press release here).  We’ve also announced a new functional organization model in which we’re recruiting the best industry talent. As the economy recovers, we’re keen to prioritize this area of the business again.

Neves: In a recent interview, you mentioned that a large majority of security breaches are related to passwords, and therefore these identifiers should be replaced by biometric ID to enhance security and user experience. When do you expect that passwords will be replaced completely by biometric authentication systems?

Philpott: I’ve been working in cybersecurity for more than 20 years and it amazes me that passwords and PINs still form the basis of most personal and organizational security. While passwords are deeply embedded in our security processes, and not to mention they are a cheap strategy, they are unsecure and inconvenient, especially in the context of today’s connected world. Ten years ago we may have had to deal with myths and misconceptions, today countless industries are already wise to the value offered by biometrics. As a result, biometrics is becoming the preferred authentication method for consumers. One recent survey found that 52% of those who use biometrics prefer it over any other authentication method (see survey here). We are also seeing some standardization in security as the industry moves away from passwords towards passkeys and multi-factor authentication. As biometrics becomes increasingly incorporated within these authentication methods, this will accelerate the shift to the end-user becoming the key. My guess is that within a decade the industry will be rid of passwords. My hope is that this day comes sooner. As we move towards biometrics though, it’s important to remember that this alone will not eradicate risk. Users will still need to be cautious with attacks like social engineering, but we can certainly bring the risk level down significantly.

Neves: In one of the latest press releases from the company you mentioned the need to diversify its revenue streams to avoid dependence on mobile-based authentication sensors. Based on this comment, we are curious to know which biometric recognition products you foresee in the future?

Philpott: Our biometrics platform strategy will seek to incorporate a variety of innovative modalities across use cases that meet the challenges of the digital world today and tomorrow. The platform itself is broken down into four layers:

➔ How we capture – Not only will this include our proven fingerprint and IRIS modalities, but we also want to expand into the latest biometric modalities as well. This could include facial, behavioral, voice and movement biometrics.

➔ How we process – Determining the processes to extract key indicators from software modalities, such as fingerprints, iris, face or gait.

➔ How we expand analytics – This refers to the software analytics engines, such as algorithms that match the signal to a given outcome such as identity or behavior. AI and machine learning offer significant opportunities here.

➔ How we make the match – Specifying the software data layer where the information is managed and securely stored. The distributed data model stored and encrypted on the device is perfect for many use cases, but there are opportunities and business models for using more virtualized mechanisms, such as cloud and blockchain, further down the line.

Overall, our goal is to continue creating a user authentication experience that makes engaging with the digital world easy and secure. There are a multitude of development and expansion opportunities. We are exploring new software modalities, such as face and health; analytics engine expansion for outcomes beyond identity with AI; new verticals, including retail and government; and new use cases including FIDO (Fast Identity Online) and KYC (Know Your Customer). To sum up, Fingerprints continues to be a leader in premium biometrics solutions. By evolving to a new dynamic organization, we’re well positioned to drive future innovation and deploy our expertise and technology in new, impactful ways.