Passwords passe

-- A CHEAP fingerprint recognition system
may soon replace passwords and thereby make online shopping secure. In this
system you can verify financial transactions on the Internet by keeping your
fingerprint on a tiny touchscreen
attached to your personal computer.
This is the promise of a new fingerprint
recognition technology developed by a
Cambridge (UK) company.

The company, Cambridge Neuradynamics, which grew out of projects
investigating pattern- matching techniques in Cambridge University's
department of engineering, claims to
have perfected a us $350 fingerprint
scanner that can be used to control security doors to verify a person's identity.

The company's managing director
Mike Welch told the press that the
installation of this unit could end fears
about the theft of passwords in offices
and among people shopping on the
World Wide Web. Since each finger-
print is unique, it can be verified
instantly when the system demands, and
companies can make sure that the right
person is present when an order is being
placed.

Trial units are now installed in the
financial sector. They are being used to
verify that people are who they claim to
be, but future uses could include
fingerprint passes, replacing identity
cards in offices. One African state,
which Welch says he cannot name for security reasons., is installing the fingerprinting equipm~nt to crack down on people who apply for multiple passports.

Each time a passport is issued, a digital fingerprint will be record~d. A print-retrieval and search system devel- oped by the company, which runs on speeded up PCS, can then automatically search through as-many as five million separat~ fingerprint records and pick out any duplicates in five to 10 minutes.

According to Welch, "there is some political sensitivity about using finger- prints for civilian purposes, especially in the UK. But elsewhere a lot of companies have shown interest. Political and tech- nological arguments "about fmgerprint systems in the uKhave SO far thwarted efforts to produce a national database of prints for police use. " Automatic fingerprint recognition has been around on older systems for some time, but what we offer is cheaper, because of the PC hardware, and much more accurate. It can pick up- similarities in prints which would otherwise have gone undetected."