The identity theft resource center says that 1.3 million of children's records are stolen every year.
You think stealing from little kids is bad?
What about stealing from the dead people!
Another study that I read from ID Analytic Labs says that nearly 2.5 million of deceased
Americans' information is used improperly to apply for credit products and services every year.
Don't you find it strange that we carry around this arbitrary government assigned number
or pieces of paper with our picture on it and some made-up password to prove we are
who we say we are?
When, in fact, the most rock-solid proof of our identity is something we carry around
in our cells — our DNA.
Let's do a little thought experiment together and for the next few moments, I want
you to imagine what it would be like if we could use our unique set of DNA as identity verification.
Now, I know what some of you might be thinking.
Yeah, using DNA as identity verification seems cool and all, but yikes, does that mean I
have to draw blood every time I want to make a debit card purchase or buy something online?
Surely, we don't have to go that far. Right?
Well lucky for us, your hair, saliva and ear wax all contain your DNA, so as we think about
this hypothetical possibility for the future, it doesn't have to involve too much blood!
You may also be asking, don't we already have biometric log-in and facial recognition?
That's personal, why not just stop there?
Well, even with our current latest and greatest technology it still isn't good enough.
The researchers at the Fudan University were able to fool facial recognition by having
someone wear a baseball cap that was wired with tiny infrared LED lights.
And as long as the person who’s wearing the baseball cap looked vaguely like the real
person, the lights could trick the software into thinking it was actually the person.
Not good.
Then of course you have technology like vein authentication, which is a way to use a vascular
pattern and your hand or your finger to identify who you are.
We see this in movies all the time.
The door to some super-secret lab can only be opened when the chief scientist scans his hand.
This technology actually does exist, but, alas, a conference in Germany proved that
vein authentication can be defeated by using a wax hand model.
So given all of that, I believe DNA authentication could be the answer to our identity theft problems.
Let’s imagine for a second what kind of problems this could solve.
One study that was published in the International Journal of Science and Research by using a
multilayer perceptron, the computer was able to classify three different types of skin disease.
Let's take that same skin texture analyzing technology but instead of determining diseases,
what if we can use that same technology to analyze and determine who is a person instead?
Or maybe when you go to the doctor and they use the ear thermometer to check your temperature,
what if that same device was able to collect some of your ear wax?
It would be able to scan it to verify who you are.
I just keep thinking in the far, far future like the next millennium or so, when people
were born, maybe their name, date of birth and DNA will be collected in an encrypted
file and stored on a cloud-based server somewhere.
As I imagine what the future could look like using DNA as authentication, not just what
kind of problem it could prevent, but also what kind of problem we could run into.
For example, how would we responsibly store over 7 billion DNA samples of everyone from
across the planet? And how do we really feel about collecting DNA from newborn children?
In 2022 it is estimated there will be 6 billion internet users, that's nearly double in comparison
to 4 billion internet users back in 2018.
With the ever-growing number of online activity will hackers come up with new and improved
ways to use our unique DNA against us?
Will your DNA be your best friend, or your worst enemy?
However, I still have high hopes for the future.
It is still a fun idea to tinker with.
Just think of all the possibility.
Don’t we have the right to protect ourselves, our identity?
I, for one, hope that the future of cybersecurity is literally coded in our DNA.
Thank you.