Forwarded From: Sysadminat_private Okay, Let's See Some ID by Jeffery Zbar As corporations dispatch legions of teleworkers to remote sites and home offices, how can they ensure that a user logging on to the company network isn't an imposter who's cracked the teleworker's password? Increasingly, the answer is with biometrics - a security scheme that verifies a user's identity based on a physical characteristic such as a fingerprint or a signature. Biometric scanners don't actually store any personal information. Instead, they collect and check algorithmic characteristics unique to you, whether the look of your face or the rhythm of your typing. Although the government and financial institutions have used biometrics since the 1970s, the corporate sector is catching up - particularly with telecommuters being "pushed to [adopt] security technology to ensure they're not hacked through the back door," says Erik Bowman, and analyst with Bethesda, Md.-based CardTech/SecurTech (www.stst.com), publisher of ID Word, a trade publication. A new generation of low-cost, plug-and-play products is helping make biometrics one of the top 10 technologies to watch in 1999, according to a Gartner Group report, with some analysts predicting widescale deployment as early as 2001. A spokesperson for the fingerprint scanner vendor Identicator Technology predicts this year "we'll see this technology securing laptops, PDAs, and cell phones. It's just a matter of time before we will open our cars and homes with biometrics." We found 14 companies at work developing a wide array of desktop biometric products (prices range from $50 to $400). Most scan fingerprints, but here's a quick rundown, including devices that pinpoint other distinctive features. Eyes IriScan (iriscan.com): PC Iris, a handheld scanner that identifies the pattern in the eye's iris; available this spring. Fingerprints Advanced Precision Technology Inc. (www.aprint.com): a smart card that stores a hologram image of a fingerprint scan; American Biometric Co. (www.abio.com): BioMouse Plus, an optical fingerprint imager; Biometric Access Corp. (www.biometricaccess.com): Secure Touch 98, an optical fingerprint imager; Biometric Identification Inc. (www.biometricid.com): a full line of VeriPrint fingerprint imagers (starting at $700); Digital Persona (www.dpersona.com): U.are.U fingerprint scanner and software packages; Identicator (www.identicator.com): Fingerprint Identification Technology-based optical fingerprint scanners, available through Compaq; Veridicom (www.veridicom.com): the FPS100, a finger-imaging sensor the size of a postage stamp. Faces Biometric Access Corp.: One-One-One Facial generates a digital "facial signature" matched against a stored signature; Miros (www.miros.com): TrueFace facial verification software works with popular videoconferencing cameras; Visionics (www.faceit.com): FaceIt facial verification software, also for popular videoconferencing cameras. Keystrokes Net Nanny BioPassword (www.netnanny.com): monitors your PC keyboard to measure the precise timing and fluctuations between keystrokes while typing a password phrase. Signatures Cyber-Sign (www.cybersign.com): software that recognizes swirls and other characteristics in a handwritten signature. Voices Keyware Technologies (www.keywareusa.com): partering with ST Microelectronics on a voice verification system that tracks a spoken word code; due in July. -o- Subscribe: mail majordomoat_private with "subscribe isn". Today's ISN Sponsor: Hacker News Network [www.hackernews.com]
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