According to The Wall Street Journal, attacks on rideshare drivers for companies such as Lyft and Uber are on the rise due to passengers falsifying their identities. The person committing the crime generally has some form of weapon.
This is a form of carjacking, which is legally defined as “theft by force or intimidation of an auto that has a driver or passenger present.” In 2021, there were around 150 carjacking cases involving criminals who targeted Lyft and Uber drivers. This adds to a pattern of overall carjacking rates, which are increasing significantly in the U.S.
Looking into this new crime wave for Digital Journal is Ricardo Amper, CEO and founder of the biometrics company Incode.
Amper cautions that identity is the primary issue at stake. He says: “In the era of Uber and rideshare, there’s no real way to verify someone is who they say they are, which poses a huge security risk for people.”
As an example, Amper warns: “An Uber driver can say they are someone, but there is no true way for the passenger to prove this – and vice versa.”
As to the consequences, Amper finds: “This has caused an increase in crimes and attacks by people utilizing a deep fake, or false identity. There can no longer be trust in what someone claims, it needs to be proven.”
While the main way to stop this is through better regulations and greater activities by law enforcement agencies, there are electronic measures that can be adopted too. These centre on increasing security options to prevent unauthorised access, based on the security being built into the phenotypes of the people who are required to access.
In terms of the digital world offering some of these types of solutions, Amper points out that biometrics offers the optimal security protective measures. Amper says: “By maximizing the power of biometrics and simplifying the process of identity verification, there’s an opportunity to prevent identity theft related crimes such as carjacking by authenticating all parties before pickup occurs.”
Innovations with digital technology have seen several automakers begin to design and to implement biometric vehicle access. This technological step comprises of different mechanisms that use biometric identification factors such as iris, fingerprint, and voice to unlock the vehicle.
