Liabilities may delay acceptance
Biometrics offers several distinct advantages over password-protected access control. This mature, cost-effective technology could improve and simplify access control. That said, biometrics carries a couple of liabilities that may delay its rapid acceptance.
Because laptops usually come with a microphone, voiceprint recognition is a strong option for mobile users. But in addition to the limitations that ambient noise poses, users may resist the technology because they feel awkward talking to a PC in public. The alternative--a camera or a fingerprint scanner--may not pose a problem for desktop users, but most of these devices are external. While you can't expect laptop users to be excited about having to carry yet another piece of equipment, some laptop vendors--including Acer and Compaq--now offer laptops with a built-in fingerprint scanner.
Some laptops and monitors now have built-in cameras, and desktop keyboards and pointing devices are now available with fingerprint scanners. The built-in biometric devices should increase the likelihood of acceptance among users and security administrators. If biometrics isn't quite ready for prime time, it's certainly waiting in the wings. It just needs improved hardware integration so that it's much easier and less expensive to deploy.
Don't throw away your passwords just yet; biometric systems aren't a cure-all. Hardware fails. Users upgrade to new systems. Either scenario may require you to rebuild each logon profile on the client one system at a time, unless that information has been backed up elsewhere.
Biometrics may provide a strong alternative to password authentication, but the client isn't the only way into your network. Back-end systems that host biometric security systems are just as susceptible to online sabotage as other technologies. If your servers go down or your registrations are damaged, your employees and customers can't log on. In a worst-case scenario, you will need to painstakingly rebuild all of your user profiles before full functionality can be restored.
Conclusion
The fingerprint scanner is the device we'd be most likely to carry on a business trip. It offers the best balance of convenience and usability and is compact enough that manufacturers are starting to build scanners into their laptops. But for more comprehensive solutions that require a high degree of integration--including PCs, ATMs, and building access--iris, retina, and face recognition make more sense. This option may be a more appropriate general-purpose solution when monitors and laptops with built-in cameras become commonplace. For now, voice recognition seems the best suited of the three for mobile use, even if it is a bit problematic.
In an ideal world, visual recognition systems would automatically register our identities when we enter our office buildings. This information would then be used to turn on our office lights and our PCs and download our e-mail and calendars. Laptops would have built-in fingerprint scanners for secure access to the computer and remote back-end services. Our cell phones and PDAs would be integrated into a single device with voice recognition, allowing us to log in to corporate telephony and mobile network services.
The technology to make this science fiction a reality is here today, although the integration is not yet truly transparent. Nonetheless, today's biometric security products work very well, are improving rapidly, and deserve a careful look.
