Clearly, there has to be a better way. A great deal of research has been done to develop verification systems based on fingerprints, iris scanning, patterns of blood vessels in the retina or hand, voiceprints and the like. All these systems suffer from the disadvantage that special equipment is required. This costs money - to buy, to install and to maintain. There are other problems with biometrics.
Users generally regard most methods as unpleasantly intrusive or as having criminal connotations.
There is a lack of standards. But perhaps the biggest problem is that biometric data is inherently public and can be used to impersonate the real owner unless he or she is physically present. Once the biometric has been captured in digital form it can be copied and used fraudulently quite easily. This is less of an issue on closed networks such as a departmental local area network, but for remote authentication over the Internet it becomes a serious threat. There is little doubt that smartcards or other tokens which contain digital signatures will become increasingly common.