Even with people continually being told they shouldn’t use weak passwords it’s still happening, according to SplashData and the 2015 edition of its annual “Worst Passwords List.” The news, however, isn’t entirely bad. In the fifth annual report, compiled from more than 2 million leaked passwords during the year, some new and longer passwords made their debut, which may be a sign that websites and consumers are attempting to be more secure.

As credential issuers want to get a longer lifespan out of the documents card durability is becoming an important factor when choosing new materials. Federal and state agencies, as well as other high-value issuers, want to get as much out of a document as possible, and a 10-year lifespan seems the ultimate objective. To achieve this issuers are moving away from 100% PVC cards – the cheapest and most common type – to composite cards made up of a variety of materials, often including polyesters, polycarbonate or Teslin substrate.

When we think about innovative industries, traditional financial institutions may not be front of mind. Instead the industry has developed a public reputation for stability and consistency. Yet many banks have been showing a different attitude when it comes to security.

Morpho announced that the FBI has certified the MorphoWave Desktop contactless fingerprint scanner; Global government biometrics spending is predicted to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 22.34% between 2014-2019; EyeVerify ended 2015 with 2 million unique enrolled devices.

Atom Bank will deploy biometrics to ease the log-in process in the New Year. The move comes amid broader adoption of biometrics as both a means of identification and security.

Many bold claims were made about facial recognition technology in the wake of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks in the U.S. Vendors said facial recognition could spot wanted criminals in a crowd and perhaps stop terrorists from entering the country. The reality was quite different as it turns out that the technology works best with cooperative subjects and good quality images.

A growing number of cities are making it possible for residents to prove their identity to local agencies and institutions without having to present a driver license. With the adoption of municipal ID programs, local and state governments are issuing ID cards to residents – mostly undocumented individuals – who otherwise wouldn’t be able to obtain a traditional ID.

With close to two-thirds of responding companies having suffered a data breach in the past 12 months, 95% reported they would increase cybersecurity spending in the next year. Enterprises are also ramping up authentication procedures with 66% moving beyond user names and password for authentication.