Biometric Sensor Can’t Fall Into The Wrong Hands

September 26 2007 by The Systemic Analyst.

It’s nice to see that biometric firms are improving technologies all the time. If the databases that store user information could be enhanced a useful solution might be at our fingertips…

If you’re using your cell phone in Japan right now, there’s a good chance that you have to swipe your finger over a thin gold bar like this in order to gain access.

You might also use one of these sensors to log into your PC or in place of a key to open your front door. And if you’re doing that, you’re probably not going to bother with your wallet the next time you buy a cup of coffee, paying instead by briefly holding your cell phone to an RF reader. The early adopters of fingerprint authentication are Japan and S. Korea, but Florida-based AuthenTec is hoping to make the technology ubiquitous.

If this seems crazy to you, you’re not alone. A major concern about fingerprint biometrics is the possibility of faking or transferring fingerprints. Or worse—in movies and reality alike, the bad guy has been known to cut off someone’s finger to get around the fingerprint security device.

But AuthenTec’s sensor aims to discourage the removal of fingers to gain secure access.

“It only reads live skin,” AuthenTec representative Brent Dietz says. “So you couldn’t cut off someone’s finger and then use it.” Dietz says other technologies only look at the finger’s surface, which can be adulterated by cuts, oily skin, or worn fingerprints. But this sensor (actually an RF scanner) looks at what Dietz calls the “true fingerprint” in the live skin deep beneath the surface—so deep that you can see individual pores. A lost or stolen phone becomes completely useless.” Click here for more.

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