Fingerprint Authentication - The Time Has Finally Arrived

Convenience First
Simple Truths
Emerging Standards
Costs
Measurable Usefulness

It has been more than 15 years since the introduction of commercial fingerprint authentication systems. Yet they are just now gaining broad acceptance. We should not be surprised. Many technologies required several years before the right combination of factors allowed them to become ubiquitous. If one looks back to laptop computers, cell phones, fax machines, pagers, laser printers and countless other everyday devices, one will realize most had long gestation periods. Biometrics is now at the acceptance crossroads. What will propel them into common usage?

Convenience First - There is the reason end-users should use fingerprint authentication in the IT world, i.e. security, and there is the reason they WILL use it, convenience. The simple fact is that passwords don't work very well. They are "nocost" to establish, but very expensive to maintain. Just ask the help desk manager in a major corporation. More than 50 percent of all help desk calls are related to passwords 3&Mac218;4 lost, forgotten or otherwise useless. Count all the passwords you use everyday and often have to change once a month. Password administration is a nightmare for MIS managers and users. Fingerprint authentication eliminates the problem, and the headaches.

Other authentication mechanisms such as tokens, smart cards, etc. require you to carry something. This is better than a password, but easier to lose. Think about losing your credit card or driver's license. Losing your corporate network access card could be a lot worse. Information is valuable and harder to track than money.

Fingerprints can also act as a simple, trusted and convenient user-interface to a well thought out security architecture. The two components need each other to provide truly effective security. A user authenticated via fingerprints can take advantage of a solid security system with minimal education.
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Simple Truths - Users don't trust what they don't understand. Most IT security concepts are incomprehensible to the common user. Explaining public and private keys, key recovery systems and digital certificates is beyond the skills of even experienced MIS professionals. Most users have no concept of encryption algorithms and their implementations, nor do they want to understand. Users want simple, trusted security.

Simple, as in put your finger down. It does not take a security professional to realize that 10 passwords on sticky notes attached to your monitor are poor security. Most breaches of security require doing the obvious, and are often done by insiders.

Trusted, as in having stood the test of time. Fingerprints have been used for identification for over 100 years. They are the standard without question. In addition to signatures, fingerprints are the only other form of identification that have a legal standing. A key issue of trust is privacy. The best way to maintain that is to store a template of unique fingerprint characteristics instead of the entire print. This is sufficient for one-to-one or one-to-many matching and eliminates the need for a database of searchable fingerprints.
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Emerging Standards - IT professionals insist upon standards, multiple sources of supply and endorsement by industry leaders. It's beginning to happen, but to think that a small biometrics company can set an industry standard is ludicrous. Yet many have tried.

Any CIO or MIS manager would not bet his job or company on a proprietary solution from a small biometrics company. These people want choice and standards to provide multiple sources of supply and fair competition among vendors. The one exception to this rule is when there has been a major catastrophe, such as a significant loss of money. However, it is tough to build a sustainable business chasing disasters.
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Standards need to be set by the IT industry leaders such as Intel, Microsoft, Phoenix Technologies and the top 10 computer companies. In the last year, many of these large organizations have banded together to begin the process of standardization. This is the first sign of an industry maturing.

Cost - Just as in the early days of desktop computers when a system cost more than $10,000, only a few people had systems. Now when they cost less than $1,000, everybody has one. This same "order of magnitude" cost breakthrough has recently occurred with fingerprint technology. What cost $1,000 two years ago is now available for less than $100. Cost alone is not the answer, but it is a necessary component of broad market acceptance of this technology.

Complete Solutions - Lots of companies talk about "complete solutions," but what does this mean? It does not mean a custom, proprietary combination of fingerprint sensor, matching software and application software - point products and closed solutions are not acceptable. It does mean an open architecture where the sensor, matching algorithm and applications are interchangeable and leverageable. Veridicom's OpenTouchTM architecture embraces this tenet and lets the user choose.
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Measurable Usefulness - Being able to accurately gauge the usefulness of a fingerprint authentication solution is very important. This technology saves money in password administration, user up-time and user support. More importantly fingerprint authentication allows you to do more with a computer. Now, remote secure network access is possible. Electronic commerce makes sense when the authentication is trusted. It is a fact that 75 percent of all Internet users are uncomfortable transmitting their credit card information over the public network. Imagine if this was never an issue. Fingerprint authentication is an enabling technology for trusted e-commerce.

All the signs are in the market for the acceptance of fingerprint authentication as a simple, trusted, convenient method of personal authentication. Industry leaders are validating the technology through standards initiatives. Cost and performance breakthroughs have transformed fingerprint biometrics from an interesting technology to an easy to implement authentication solution. Industry trends such as electronic commerce and remote computing exacerbate the need for better authentication. Most importantly, users understand and accept the concept. Passwords and tokens are universally disliked. You can't get much simpler than a fingerprint.
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