Smartcards work by continually changing the legal password. Even if someone was looking over your shoulder when you last logged in, he or she wouldn't be able to use the same password to access your computer data because the password would have expired. On the downside, smartcards are expensive, may incur a monthly maintenance fee, and can be lost or stolen. The buzzword in high security these days is biometrics, wherein voice prints, thumbprints, retinal scans, face scans, and even body odors can be compared for automatic identity verification. Voice-based biometric security systems are still a few years off in terms of accuracy and cost.
Retinal scans are accurate but too expensive and intrusive for most civilian applications.
After waiting a few seconds for verification, you can begin using your computer. Only three staff members have fingerprint access to the system, and data are automatically encrypted and stored on a separate hard drive. The advantage of fingerprint-recognition systems is that you can't lose, forget, or loan your fingerprint. A potential downside of fingerprint-recognition systems is their novelty. I've seen casual passersby stop and touch the finger platen to see if their fingerprint can fool the system.