Dennis Fisher reports Organisations such as banks, health care providers and even government agencies are increasingly turning to biometric scanners as an effective means of securing networks against attackers and forgetful employees. You have to find the right balance between the level of security and the level of customer service,' said Charlie Brenner, senior vice-president of Fidelity Investments' Center for Applied Technology. CAS SignOn also gives administrators the option of setting different authentication requirements for individual applications or sections of a network. For example, a company could require only a password to access a shared corporate calendar, but could also demand a voiceprint or facial scan to access back-end applications from companies such as SAP and PeopleSoft. And because the platform is managed centrally, rather than at the user level, the administrator can easily change policies and permission levels.
Most companies still regard biometric devices as overkill for authentication.
However, e-commerce means that increasingly partners and customers want access to corporate networks. This often translates into a deluge of requests for new passwords, which are frequently forgotten. BioNetrix's Authentication Suite 4.0, which was launched this month, lets users authenticate themselves over the Internet for Web-based applications. Like CAS SignOn, BioNetrix's platform is centrally managed and enables administrators to push policy changes to users and set levels of authentication for individual applications. In anticipation of a big shift to wireless Internet access, BioNetrix and Keyware are working on biometrics for mobile devices.