There is work being done in the industry today on new approaches that leverage biometrics for device authentication. The FIDO alliance (www.fidoalliance.org) has developed specifications that define the use of biometrics for both a password-less experience and for use as a second authentication factor. Authentication can include a range of flexible biometric types—from fingerprints to voice prints. Biometric authentication is being added to some commercial IoT devices (such as consumer door locks) already, and there is interesting potential in leveraging biometrics as a second factor of authentication for IoT systems.

For example, voice prints could be used to enable authentication across a set of distributed IoT devices, such as Road Side Equipment (RSE) in the transportation sector. This would allow an RSE tech to access the device through a cloud connection to the backend authentication server. Companies such as Hypr Biometric Security (https://www.hypr.com/) are leading the way toward using this technology to reduce the need for passwords and enable more robust authentication techniques.