Product Details
Product Rating
BioDisk Biometric Flash Disk
DigitalPersona Pro for Active Directory
SafeGuard PDA Enterprise
SAFsolution Workstation Bundle
SecuGen Hamster III
SecuGen OptiMouse III
The SAFsolution Workstation Bundle from Saflink is our Best Buy nomination for its no-nonsense approach and seamless operation throughout. It is straightforward biometric logon solution which works well. The Recommended award goes to DigitalPersona Pro for Active Directory 3.0, which is a well-considered, mature product that integrates nicely into your Windows environment and provides useful utilities as well as a proven capture device.
Biometrics (2004)
As with any emerging technology there will always be sceptics, but it is time we gave biometric tools a chance. You might even like them, says Julian Ashbourn
Biometrics is a subject guaranteed to stir up some interesting opinion and debate. Many see the identification of individuals via physiological or behavioural traits as a new-fangled emerging concept, albeit one which has been emerging for thousands of years.
In the context of our modern information society, with all its attendant bells and whistles, marketable electronic biometric devices have now been around for 15 years or so. Within this time, costs have fallen, matching algorithms have improved, and many suppliers have come and gone – and we are still sitting around talking about emerging technologies. This is a long gestation period.
Within the enterprise IT arena, there are some forward-thinking organizations that have embraced biometric technology as a personal identity verification technique for workstation and network access control, but the widescale use of biometrics for this purpose is still relatively rare.
How many individuals in your office are using biometrics on a daily basis? This situation begs the question as to why we are yet to see widespread use of biometrics in the typical office environment. It is not likely to be cost, because perfectly good devices, complete with usable software, are now readily available for computer peripheral prices.
Perhaps it has more to do with trust in what, to many, is still an emerging technology. Or perhaps it is simply a lack of awareness of how this technology works and its benefits. In this respect, SC has tried hard to keep readers up to date with developments over the years, and we are continuing in this vein with this group evaluation.
In more specialist areas, such as national ID cards, driving licences and passports, certain countries have already implemented biometric technology on a wide scale. Within a few years, more countries will have implemented biometric passports and visas and will be rolling out the technology in other areas of public interest.
Overall awareness of the technology will increase accordingly, and technology suppliers will see a more encouraging marketplace.
So when are we to see a wider adoption of biometric identity verification in computer security – especially given the oft-quoted weaknesses of passwords and password management? From a user's perspective, simply touching their fingertip onto a sensor in order to log on to the network or a specific application is intuitive, simple and consistent.
They no longer have to worry about remembering or constantly changing passwords for different applications, and they cannot forget their fingerprint (or iris pattern, facial construction, hand geometry, voice pattern or other technique).
From an administrator's perspective, if such a system is correctly implemented, the likelihood of a malicious impostor successfully replicating or otherwise circumventing another user's biometric is miniscule when compared to the likelihood of guessing a password. Some who will argue triumphantly that the technology isn't perfect. Of course it isn't. Neither is your operating system, network, hardware or collection of applications.
However, the intelligent use of biometrics for network access control represents a significant step forwards from the use of passwords and associated methodologies. It is time for a fresh look at this technology, its strengths and weaknesses, and how it might be used within the broader IT context.
In particular, it is time for one of the major application development tools providers to supply some consistent components with which to ease the integration of biometric technology into other processes. It is time for mainstream IT security vendors to re-assess the potential value of biometric technology and understand where this might go in the future. There is plenty of relevant information around, such as on the non-profit IBF website (IB Foundation).
In the meantime, as a curious user or systems administrator, you can go out now and buy a perfectly good fingerprint biometric logon system for less than you might spend at the bar this evening. Plug it in to your workstation and it will work, and instantly transform both the usability and security of the logon process. Use it to gain familiarity with biometrics. Try to break it. Try to deliberately fool it. Push it to its limits, and then judge as objectively as you can whether this technology offers advantages in your particular situation.
Of course, there are potential downsides – what if someone runs off with the biometric device, what if a mouse chews through the connecting cable overnight, what if I lose all my fingers in a horrific lawnmower accident? But such questions are often asked as part of the normal risk assessment around any technology evaluation.
On balance, you may find that biometrics have much to offer. Our own evaluation looks at a few representative devices, although there are many more out there to choose from, including devices embedded into other products such as keyboards, notebook computers and even PDAs. It's a good time to take another look at biometrics.
