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Doubts cast on fingerprint security for online banking

Why do people only think of fingerprints as biometrics? Since 2004 banks in Japan have been using vein print technology in ATM's, a couple of years later several banks in South America, Brazil in particular, have been using both vein and fingerprint. I have read news releases of Iris biometrics being used in the Middle East for banking customers (I am pretty sure a UK bank did this for a while as well). The technology for FingerID isn't new, it isn't even the safest way to do this. There are companies that encrypt the fingerprint and compare the encrypted data only not the fingerprint itself. Match on Card is another technology that would work well for on-line banking (if cost wasn't an issue) as this only stores your fingerprints on a chip card which is in your possession and the decryption and matching is done with the software in the chip rather than on a PC. Yes, fingerprints do have a negative image to the middle classes. I would also state that the technology also has a VIP feel to it as it is expensive. I do have to agree that overall pricing may prove to be prohibitive. On a side note to those like Brian M, People give their biometrics every day without even thinking about it to a massive centralised database (photo's on facebook), to CCTV, fingerprints left on surfaces we touch, leave their DNA in café's and share passwords / pins with colleagues and family. Anyone with any knowledge of security will know you need a layered approach to combat criminal attack, biometrics is a layer in that security. No one should claim that it is the silver bullet, but done correctly it can add a strong layer of security with an audit trail to can trust. I like first point in the humanelement post, I have heard people talk for years about extracting someone's biometrics from a chip or lifting it from the glass on a biometric terminal. WAKE UP! If you use your hands to do ANY task you are leaving a full or partial print. It is easy to lift the fingerprint from the surface of the card you have been holding than break into a chip, decrypt a fingerprint template and then re-constitute a fingerprint image. It is amazing to see people with no knowledge of the technology claiming parrot fashion perceived weaknesses. learn about the technology, understand what is currently in use in the real world. Then form your own opinions, then tell people.

23 Dec 2010

10:17 am