Sign into TSB using your eyes – but is it safe?

You’ll soon be able to log into your bank account simply by looking at your phone, after TSB became the first bank in Europe to introduce iris-recognition technology.

From September customers with a Samsung Galaxy S8 or S8+ smartphone will be able to unlock TSB’S banking app using the Samsung Pass iris scanner, rather than by typing a password.

The app will be the first major test of how much customers trust biometric methods for signing into accounts and devices. These also include fingerprint, voice and face recognition.

Speaking to the BBC, Carlos Abarca, TSB’S chief information officer, said that iris recognition offers “an unparalleled level of cyber security” when used with the bank’s other security measures.

He added that iris scanning “takes advantage of 266 characteristics, compared with 40 for fingerprints”. But some security experts claim it’s less safe than is commonly thought. Recently German hackers tricked a Samsung Galaxy S8’s iris scanner using a photo of the device owner’s eye and a contact lens.

Richard Parris, chief executive of UK security software company Intercede, told The Telegraph that biometric techniques alone are not safe enough. He said systems that confirm identity need three distinct elements: “possession (something you have, such as a smartphone), knowledge (something you know, such as a PIN) and inherence (something you are, an iris scan)”.

Experts have also warned that customers can’t change their eyes, fingers or face if their accounts are hacked, as they can with passwords.

Abarca admitted that no identification system “is absolutely perfect”, but claimed that iris scanning combined security and convenience. He said: “It’s extremely fast – it takes less than a second to get in – and the gesture is very natural. And you don’t have to remember secret numbers or passwords.”