From Ryan Groom,
Your Guide to Business Security.
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Introdiction

Entry level biometrics have reached the price point that they are a great tool that could benefit many businesses. The fingerprint scanner is a form of biometrics which enables us to use something we have (in this case our finger) to help authenticate us to a computer or network.

I have written about the virtues of tools to help with passwords such as PasswordSafe, but this is different. The more I deal with small businesses, the more I realize that users have a hard time remembering passwords. What do they do with them when they can’t remember them...they write them down where they can be found. With the fingerprint scanner, a user doesn’t even have to know what their password is and they can still access secure systems.

Apart from the James Bond-esque applications, Fingerprint scanners are starting to show up in many mom and pop shops all over. They are cheap and easy to configure. I still get a thrill logging into an application with the press of a finger.

How Does It Work?

The scanner remembers the patterns of ridges and valleys unique to your finger. The scanner then compares the stored pictures of your finger to the one that is being presented to the scanner. If there is a match, it lets you in. The Microsoft Fingerprint Scanner I use uses optical scanning as opposed to Capacitance scanning. You can check out the differences in scanning methods at HowStuffWorks.com. To configure the scanner you need to place each finger you want the scanner to recognize a total of four times on the scanner so it can get a good picture.

Pros and Cons of Fingerprint Scanners

The pros of such a system are many. It is fast and extremely easy to setup. Certain fingerprint scanners actually allow you to access Active Directory accounts although the one from Microsoft does not at present but the one from DigitalPersona does. Physically compromising a system is a lot harder than simply guessing passwords in many cases. You don’t often forget your fingers as you do a password. Even so, do as I have done and use multiple fingers from each hand to ensure you can survive an unfortunate accident. Multiple people can log onto the same computer with different profiles without ever having to know their passwords. The fingerprint scanner does not forget your password like you might after you go to Disneyworld for two weeks. So it is definitely a time saving device too.

With that said, the systems are not error free. Never, never ,never substitute any device for a little common sense. If you do use a scanner to protect something like PasswordSafe, you will definitely want to verify that you remember the password in case of a mishap. If you use encrypted drives, and you use your finger to mount and dismount the drives, again have a backup. Lastly, (and it even says this on the fingerprint scanner package), think of such devices as a convenience.

Conclusion

Don’t trust everything you own to a fingerprint scanner. In my daily routine I have over 150 passwords I am responsible for. The combination of PasswordSafe and a finger print scanner is fantastic for me. However, I also make sure I back up my password database and know the password to manually open the password database. So for around $50 you can outfit a computer and make your user’s lives a little more convenient.