Security at Your Fingertips

Electrical Engineers Develop Pocket-Size Fingerprint Recognition

A new pocket device reads fingerprints and validates them by wireless access to a computer. With this biometrics system, users can avoid using passwords, and get simpler and more secure access to bank balances, credit cards, and even buildings.

Dominic DeSantis dares anyone to try and hack into his personal PC files. "I have different files on my desktop that you can't open without passwords," he says.
Tough password tactics may slow down a cyber thief, but it's not foolproof. Now, electrical engineers have developed this new security device that uses a one-of-a-kind access code -- your fingerprint.
"It becomes a personal identification device that you carry with you, and the device only works for you," says Barry Johnson, an electrical engineer at Privaris, Inc., in Fairfax, Va. "The fingerprint, being something that you are, is something you that you will not forget."
With the touch of a finger, online access is a cinch for credit card purchases, viewing bank balances, or checking e-mail -- all without remembering or typing a single password or PIN number. Once you scan your finger, the device compares the scan to your fingerprint data, or biometrics already stored in the device.
"The ability to not only store the fingerprint on the device, and only on the device, but to do that securely is a unique feature of the device," Johnson says. He says the new device can work with existing security systems and also works for access into buildings.
It's a unique way to help consumers like DeSantis stay secure with something he'll never lose.
BACKGROUND: "Spoofing" is the process by which individuals test a biometric security system by introducing a fake sample. This can help companies improve those systems in order to better protect their information and employees. The goal is to make the authentication process as accurate and reliable as possible.
HOW IT WORKS: Digits from cadavers and fake fingers molded from plastic, or even play dough or gelatin, can potentially be misread as authentic by biometric security systems. Electrical and computer engineers are addressing this issue by trying to "spoof" such systems in hopes of designing more effective safeguards and countermeasures. One such study found a 90 percent false verification rate; the scanning machines could not distinguish between a live sample and a fake one. The system was modified to detect the pattern of perspiration from a live finger, which reduced the false verification rate to less than 10 percent.

Posted in: Computer security,Science News