Fujitsu to Replace Employee Passwords With Palm Vein Authentication

“Additionally, about 5,200 employees will be affected by the deployment of palm vein authentication for access control at two offices that currently require smart cards for entry.”

Fujitsu is about to get a taste of its own medicine – in a good way. The company has announced that it’s going to replace password-based authentication with palm vein authentication for its employees.

Expected to roll out over the course of about a year, the project will affect 80,000 staff in Japan who currently use passwords to access their virtual desktops. Each of them will be provided with Fujitsu’s PalmSecure scanners, allowing them to log into their workstations with a wave of the hand. Additionally, about 5,200 employees will be affected by the deployment of palm vein authentication for access control at two offices that currently require smart cards for entry.

In all cases, the biometric authentication will be managed through the Fujitsu Cloud Service K5 platform.

In a statement announcing the move, Fujitsu framed it as part of an effort to ‘accelerate workstyle transformation’, echoing language used in the company’s announcement of its recent partnership with Microsoft, in which the firms said they would collaborate on AI technologies for the enterprise. Fujitsu’s statement on its internal transformation program added that the company “looks forward to building on the knowhow it acquires through this internal deployment, and intends to further expand its range of palm vein authentication solutions for customers.”

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January 18, 2016 – by Alex Perala