Amanda Hacio

'A password you can't change': 91�Թ� alumnus Karl Martin on how to keep biometric data safe

Christopher.Sorensen — Mon, 24 Feb 2020 13:47:53 +0000

'A password you can't change': 91�Թ� alumnus Karl Martin on how to keep biometric data safe

Christopher.Sorensen Mon, 02/24/2020 - 08:47

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Karl Martin, a biometrics expert and alumnus of 91�Թ�'s Faculty of Applied Science and Engineering, says biometric data is increasingly used as an added layer of security to authenticate users on handheld devices (photo by Lukenn Sabellano via Unsplash)

Amanda Hacio

Topic

Our Community

Alumni

Cyber Security

Electrical & Computer Engineering

Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering

If you unlock your smartphone with facial recognition or your fingerprint, you’re using biometrics.

In the past few years, biometric data – positioned as an added layer of security to verify a person’s identity using unique physical traits – has become a reliable method of authentication for access to handheld devices.

But there are strings attached to this convenience: there’s a risk of identity theft, data gathering without consent as well as physical and online surveillance.

“If our biometric data is stolen, it’s equivalent to stealing a password that you can’t change,” says Karl Martin (left), an alumnus of the 91�Թ�’s Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering who is also a biometrics expert and entrepreneur.

Writer Amanda Hacio recently spoke with Martin to learn more about the security implications of giving out our most personal and unique data.

What is your experience with biometric data?

I co-founded – and led for many years – the company Nymi, which developed a biometric authentication wristband that simplifies authentication and compliance for workers in regulated industrial settings. The Nymi Band uses fingerprints and the electrocardiogram (ECG) to ensure high trust while maintaining privacy and usability. Prior to this, during both my PhD studies and while running a boutique consulting firm, I was involved in developing systems that used facial, ECG and handwritten-signature recognition.

What were some of the security concerns and challenges you ran up against when creating Nymi?

From the beginning, we recognized the importance of handling biometric data with a high degree of care. We took a stance that the biometric data must only be stored in the local device controlled by the user. We had to ensure that users could trust that no one could access the data.

Additionally, the communication between the wristband and other systems, such as mobile devices and computers, was based on Bluetooth, which is generally considered an unsecure means to communicate information. We had to develop a proprietary protocol that assumed that third parties would be snooping.

What are the security concerns related to biometric data more broadly?

We’re increasingly relying on biometrics to enable easy and reliable authentication to devices and systems. If our biometric data is stolen, it’s equivalent to stealing a password that you can’t change. Our accounts and data become vulnerable to being accessed without our authorization by people impersonating us using our biometric data.

Another danger is unauthorized surveillance. If biometric data is being gathered without our permission, it may be used to monitor and track us through a variety of sensors such as surveillance cameras or our online presence.

If stored locally within a device, it’s less likely to be targeted by attackers since there’s less of an opportunity for a mass, scalable data breach. It’s worth noting, however, that not all device-based storage is created equal. At the secure end, some devices such as Apple’s Touch ID and the Nymi Band use cryptographic hardware for secure storage. On the vulnerable end, a typical app on your phone is not secure and may itself be the source of a breach.

What can companies and users do to make sure the biometric technology they’re using isn’t stealing personal data or information?

I believe that people should not accept applications that move their biometric data into the cloud. Users should demand a “privacy-by-design approach,” which ensures that system design puts user privacy at the forefront. However, individual users are often at a disadvantage with a lack of transparency on how their data is being handled. I believe this is where regulations have a role in ensuring transparency and adoption of best practices when it comes to the design of systems.

What do you do if your data is already in the cloud?

The now classic adage is unfortunately true: Once something is on the internet, it’s there forever. But all is not lost, depending on the situation. If you’re enrolled in a system that stores your biometric data in the cloud, it’s worth un-enrolling yourself and attempting to have your data deleted. Unfortunately, there’s no guarantee that the service provider will comply or execute a secure deletion.

More generally, it’s likely for most of us that our face-image data is already online and associated with our identity through various social media sites. Given that this data is already out there and even being exploited, this is where regulations come into play. We should all consider advocating for regulations that prevent corporations from exploiting our data without our permission. And at least in the short term, we should give preferential treatment to companies and products that follow the Privacy by Design framework.

What unconventional forms of biometrics are being collected that the average person might not be aware of?

Two modalities that are now actively commercialized, but not well known, are electrocardiogram (ECG) and gait – our individually distinct manner of walking. At Nymi, we were the first to fully commercialize ECG recognition into a market-ready product. Gait, while not a strong identifier, can be used in video surveillance along with other factors to identify individuals, often without their knowledge.

As artificial intelligence (AI) becomes more sophisticated, what security concerns do you think will arise with biometric technology?

One of the applications of biometrics is emotion recognition, which can use a variety of signals such as facial expression and heart rate. While this technology is still in its infancy, there are both positive and negative potential implications.

On the positive side, it creates the opportunity to build applications that are adaptive to a user’s state of mind, delivering more customized and relevant experiences. On the negative side, with the proliferation of AI technologies, there is a risk of mass population manipulation such as what we saw with the Cambridge Analytica scandal – should biometric data not be protected and controlled by individuals.

91�Թ� alumna co-founds company after spotting blemish in skin-care industry: Lack of natural and affordable products

geoff.vendeville — Fri, 13 Sep 2019 15:14:11 +0000

91�Թ� alumna co-founds company after spotting blemish in skin-care industry: Lack of natural and affordable products

geoff.vendeville Fri, 09/13/2019 - 11:14

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Chemical engineering alumna Laura BUrget co-founded a skin-care company, Niu Body, after noticing there was an untapped market for affordable and natural skin-care products (photo by Roberta Baker)

Topic

Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering

Startups

As early as her second year in engineering at the 91�Թ�, Laura Burget knew she wanted to be an entrepreneur.

“I actually ran two businesses while I was in school – I managed the engineering bookstore and a College Pro franchise,” says Burget, who graduated with a bachelor's in chemical engineering. “The business knowledge I gained from these two experiences made me realize I had the skills to turn my natural skin-care products into a business.”

In January 2017, Burget and Connie Lo, who has a background in business and accounting, gave themselves a challenge: equipped with only $4,000, they would try to launch an natural, vegan and cruelty-free skin-care brand in just three months.

They succeeded.

Their company, Niu Body, was inspired by a course Burget took while pursuing her chemical engineering degree at 91�Թ�.

“In my fourth year, I took the entrepreneurship course Entrepreneurship and Small Business, which required us to develop business ideas,” she says. “As a consumer, I was really interested in natural skin-care products. I loved learning about natural ingredients and trying different home remedies – I was basically conducting chemistry experiments in my own kitchen which fostered a sense of curiosity in me for the natural beauty space.”

The course inspired her to delve deeper into researching the skin-care industry, leading her to discover a nearly untapped market for affordable, natural products.

“The main issue we want to address is inflation in the natural skin-care industry,” says Burget. While natural ingredients tend to be more expensive than chemically produced ones, Burget says the markup on finished products, such as face serums, can be 100 per cent or even higher.

“Consumers are demanding better quality, more natural ingredients and at an affordable price,” she says. “Our company’s mission is to create natural skin-care products that won’t break the bank.”

The first ingredient Burget worked with was coconut oil, which inspired the name of the company – niu means coconut in Hawaiian – and the company’s first product, a coconut oil-based makeup remover.

In addition to using high-quality, natural ingredients, overall product sustainability is important to Burget in building her brand.

“We’ve designed our packaging in a way that it’s sturdy enough to be reused and repurposed for travel,” says Burget. “And because it’s made of paper, it’s much easier to recycle and break down compared to a lot of brands that use plastic. All of our manufacturing is done in Toronto. We try to source locally as much as possible to limit our carbon footprint.”

Niu Body uses primarily paper and glass packaging for their products, so the packaging can break down more easily in the recycling process (photo by Roberta Baker)

Burget says that launching a startup can be intimidating, but that her chemical engineering courses were great preparation.

“[My background] helped with problem solving, which is one of the crucial skills engineering graduates leave with,” she says. “You’re trained to break down problems into their smallest form and determine where inefficiencies might be and how to develop a new system.”

Burget’s engineering background also gave her the confidence to communicate and work effectively with manufacturers and prospective investors.

“When I tell manufacturers and investors I have a chemical engineering degree, it tells them I know what I’m talking about and what I’m capable of,” she says.

In just two years, the number of retailers carrying Niu Body products has grown from one to over 300, with shipping available across Canada and the U.S. In the year ahead, Burget is focusing on product development and forming new retail partnerships.

“We have a busy 10 months ahead of us,” says Burget. “We’re launching six new products and we’re headed to New York for the largest cosmetics trade show in North America to showcase our company.”

For engineering students thinking about starting their own business, Burget’s advice is to take advantage of entrepreneurship offerings at the university, and not let the fear of failure get in the way: “Remind yourself that life is going to throw you curveballs, but amazing things can come out of failures, and your studies have well equipped to find solutions,” she says.

91�Թ� student team places third in national competition for app that helps children with autism spectrum disorder

noreen.rasbach — Mon, 29 Jul 2019 13:37:35 +0000

91�Թ� student team places third in national competition for app that helps children with autism spectrum disorder

noreen.rasbach Mon, 07/29/2019 - 09:37

Cutline

Ripley's Aquarium of Canada is one of the locations looked at by the MuseGO app designed by three 91�Թ� graduate students (photo courtesy of Ripley's Aquarium)

Topic

Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering

Faculty of Information

Graduate Students

A team of three 91�Թ� graduate students has designed an app for caregivers that can help improve the accessibility of museums for children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD).

The innovation earned the team third place at the 2019 Universities Canada Innovative Designs for Accessibility (IDeA) student competition, which aims to inspire university students to develop innovative, cost-effective and practical solutions to everyday accessibility-related barriers.

For their entry, Keren He and Yifan Zhang, both master’s students in engineering, and Christina Park, a master’s student of museum studies in the Faculty of Information, decided to focus on the barriers faced by children with ASD when visiting community spaces such as museums.

Children with ASD can experience sensory defensive challenges, meaning they have a low threshold for response to stimuli and tend to avoid certain kinds of sensory input. However, some children with ASD experience the opposite, referred to as sensory seeking challenges, meaning that they have a high threshold for response to stimuli and tend to seek out extra sensory input.

The app, named MuseGO, maps out the indoor environment according to sensory criteria, such as noise level, lighting and temperature. The virtual map then informs an augmented reality interface that places icons on the screen describing sensory experiences visitors can expect to find in each area.

This additional information helps visitors decide whether to avoid or visit certain areas. By making sensory information visible, the app improves overall guest experience, minimizing stress, exhaustion and confusion.

MuseGO is an app that overcomes systemic barriers in museums

“MuseGO was inspired by a guest speaker in a museum studies course I took at the Faculty of Information,” says Park. “The speaker discussed their institution’s sensory-friendly programming, so we decided to explore the potential of using a personal mobile device as a tool to break barriers for children diagnosed with ASD in accessing cultural institutions as well as other community spaces such as universities, hospitals, libraries, museums, and shopping malls.”

Park took the idea to Creative Applications for Mobile Devices, a course taught by Jonathan Rose, a professor in the Edward S. Rogers Sr. department of electrical and computer engineering, in which students work in multidisciplinary teams to design and develop smartphone apps for a wide range of uses.

By the end of the semester, He, Park and Zhang had a working prototype of MuseGO.

After completing the course, the team decided to pit their creation against 55 other projects in the national IDeA competition. Their third-place finish in the attitudinal/system barriers category comes with a $1,000 prize. They were also encouraged by the positive feedback they received from the IDeA judges, industry and peers.

“It’s been very rewarding to have put our learning and skills together to create this app which has been recognized by the greater community,” says Zhang. “We’re currently working on improving the technical and design aspects of the app to create more intuitive and accurate indoor navigation. On-site user testing in public spaces is one of our key next steps.”

Racers, start your (fuel efficient) engines…

ullahnor — Mon, 16 Apr 2018 16:15:41 +0000

Racers, start your (fuel efficient) engines…

ullahnor Mon, 04/16/2018 - 12:15

Cutline

Supermileage Team co-captains Melissa Fung (left) and Callum Bartlett (right), and their teammates, examine their hyper-efficient prototype vehicle, called Shadow, which will be competing at the Shell Eco-Marathon Americas race (photo by Roberta Baker)

Amanda Hacio

Topic

Global Lens

Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering

The 91�Թ� Supermileage Team's newest vehicle – a black, bullet-shaped prototype called Shadow – will be competing this week in the Shell Eco-Marathon Americas (SEMA) race against more than 90 teams at the NASCAR-grade Sonoma Raceway in California.

Now in its fifth year, the 91�Թ� Engineering student team designs, fabricates, builds and races hyper-fuel-efficient vehicles. This year's vehicle runs on a 30-millilitre engine with a maximum recorded efficiency of 5,505 kilometres per litre (3,421 miles per gallon), meaning Shadow could drive the 541 kilometres from Montreal to Toronto on about 25 tablespoons of fuel.

To improve their performance in Sonoma, the team has made a number of changes from previous years.

“Last year at the competition we had some difficulties with our rear drive train, so we completely redesigned it to withstand higher torques and we’re hoping that will give us some efficiency improvements,” says Supermileage Team co-captain Callum Bartlett. “We have also been working on our engine to make it more efficient and that included rewiring the whole system, which was a big project for us this year.”

The Shell Eco-Marathon event, from April 18 to 23, challenges engineering students to think small when it comes to the amount of energy required to power a vehicle. Over several days, contestants drive a set number of laps around the race track in Sonoma, Calif. At the end of the competition, organizers calculate the distance traveled and measure the amount of fuel consumed by each vehicle. The team with the most energy-efficient vehicle in each category wins.

A rewired 45 cc engine is one of many upgrades the 91�Թ� Engineering student team made to the new vehicle (photo by Roberta Baker)

This year, the Supermileage Team has been hard at work enhancing the vehicle's design with the goal of reclaiming their 2015 first-place title in the gasoline prototype internal combustion category.

Co-captain Melissa Fung is optimistic that the 91�Թ� team will come out on top, but will be keeping a close eye on long-time rival Université Laval, which took the title for the past two years.

“Laval is always our toughest competitor, but I think we have a really good chance of placing first this year because of the upgrades we made to the vehicle,” says Fung.

Improvements include clearer windshields and side windows to enhance driver visibility.

One challenge the team faced in preparing for the competition was the limited amount of space in their current work room. This fall, Supermileage will be one of seven 91�Թ� Engineering student clubs and teams moving into the Myhal Centre for Engineering Innovation & Entrepreneurship. The team will have a dedicated garage space and direct access to prototyping tools and equipment, and additional storage.

“[The Myhal Centre] will give us more space for fabrication, design work and theoretical modeling,” says Bartlett. “This will be important to the future success of the team because it will enable us to take our prototypes to the next level.”

The team with its hyper-fuel-efficient prototype vehicle Shadow (photo by Roberta Baker)

Amanda Hacio

'A password you can't change': 91�Թ� alumnus Karl Martin on how to keep biometric data safe

91�Թ� alumna co-founds company after spotting blemish in skin-care industry: Lack of natural and affordable products

91�Թ� student team places third in national competition for app that helps children with autism spectrum disorder

Racers, start your (fuel efficient) engines…

Follow the team’s journey at SEMA

Learn more about the Myhal Centre’s innovative student spaces