Locking up the office at night

Biometric safes are the most hi-tech solutions for protecting your valuable belongings. The popularity of these safes grows more and more as technology gets better. Years ago, biometrics were a science fiction technology seen mostly in films, although some biometric operations, such as retinal scanning, were available in extremely secure installations such as government buildings and military bases. Here are some of the primary advantages and disadvantages that biometric security offers, as well as some of their applications.

Biometric Security Advantages

When designing biometric security systems, manufacturers have to use characteristics that are both unique and universal. That means that a biometric safe can't be designed to lock and unlock based on someone's eye colour, because there are hundreds of millions of people with the same eye colour. The iris pattern, however, is unique to each individual. It's also one of the most universal traits, and out of all biometric identifiers, it has the fewest number of persons that cannot use it. Because someone's iris pattern cannot change over time, this system does not need updates whatsoever. The strength of biometric systems relies on the uniqueness of humans. It is virtually impossible to replicate someone's iris pattern in order to fool a biometric safe. Of course, biometric safes can be fooled, and this will be discussed in the disadvantages section below.

Disadvantages of Biometric Security Safes

Like the pattern of the iris, fingerprints are pretty much unique to each individual, and you don't need any hi-tech equipment in order to take someone's fingerprint — just cover their finger in ink and ask them to push down on a piece of paper. Exactly because of this, it can be extremely easy to fool a biometric system with the use of high-quality scans of someone's fingerprint. Most entry-level biometric systems can't distinguish between high-quality scans and real living tissue, which is one of the biggest drawbacks of fingerprint-based biometric systems. There are some systems that also scan for a pulse, and if not detected, do not grant access to the safe. This prevents people from, say, cutting someone's finger off and using it to gain unwarranted access to the safe. These high-quality biometric systems, however, can be quite expensive.

Uses of Biometric Systems

Finally, what uses would biometric systems have? Protecting your valuables is one of the most common uses for biometric systems. What if the secured user somehow becomes incapacitated and the family members need to access vital documents found inside the safe? In that sense, most biometric safes come with additional security measures such as a backup password that make them easily accessible should something happen to the biometric security system.

Contact a business like Safes Warehouse to learn more about different safe options.