Biometric technology is proliferating, with major institutions like banks and governments embracing the technology for enrolling and identifying individuals, and big-name consumer electronics also supporting the technology.
Fingerprint scanning, for example, is now a prevalent feature of contemporary smartphones, and is expected to become even more widespread going forward. Meanwhile, Microsoft has made a big push for biometric security by building such support into its Windows 10 operating system via the Windows Hello security platform.
Not all hardware devices running Windows 10 support support biometric scanning, of course, but that’s where organizations like BIO-key come in. The company has developed plug-and-play USB devices like the SideSwipe and the EcoID, which enable fingerprint scanning on any Windows 10 devices with USB ports. It’s a straightforward and cost-effective solution allowing a wide range of users to take advantage of Windows Hello biometric authentication.
But advanced security isn’t an issue of “biometrics or bust”, as the company put it in a recent blog post—it isn’t a choice between biometrics or other security technologies. As BIO-key points out, in developing the company’s WEB-key software engine, its CTO aimed to ensure that it could support additional security factors like passwords and proximity cards. It’s an illustration of the company’s recognition that one form of authentication isn’t always sufficient, and as effective as biometrics can be, there will still be cases in which such technology must form only part of a larger solution.
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September 21, 2016 – by Alex Perala
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