For awhile it seemed that fingerprint scanners were the future of security. Many, myself included, quickly tried to incorporate fingerprint based security measures as soon as they became mainstream priced. There was only one thing that nearly everyone overlooked, figuring out how easy they were to defeat. A warm pencil eraser can get past a surprising number of retail fingerprint scanners. There are quite a few other options for implementing biometric security measures but most are cost prohibitive for all but the highest security areas.
The
PalmSecure device from Fujitsu looks like it might be breaking down doors and getting palm vein scanning down to a reasonable price point. The are conveniently packaging it as a USB mouse plus authentication device for easy integration into your workspace. Their LogonDirector software integrates the PalmSecure device into Windows 2000 and XP devices (Vista should be soon to follow). Palm Scanning is considered more secure than fingerprint scanning and nearly on par with Iris scanning due to "a false rejection rate of 0.01% and a false acceptance rate of 0.00008%". The software package and a single reader should come in at under $500 and reach wide availability by the end of the year.
Via SlashGear
By Ian Chiu on February 11th, 2009
