Digital Fingerprinting is an emerging technology that uses your mobile device to identify you. There is no need for fingerprint authentication with this method. The system simply needs to access your user accounts and then check the linked device’s unique identifier and IP address against a database of known devices.
The term “digital fingerprinting” has been used in the past to describe software that can detect if someone is using a non-standard version of Microsoft Word or Adobe Reader. This technology has been used by hackers to identify vulnerable versions of software, which they then exploit to spread malware or steal data from users.
Digital Fingerprinting for Authentication
Digital fingerprinting is also being used for authentication purposes by companies like Google, who use it as part of their multi-factor authentication system called “FIDO U2F” (Universal 2nd Factor). In this scenario, users will have a physical security key plugged into their computer at all times that generates a digital signature every time it’s used on a website or application that supports it.
