Biometrics - New security trends in businesses

Recently, many people started using fingerprints or retina scanners to open the door or simply to log in to a computer account. The use of biometric devices that used to be "domains" of Hollywood movies, such as certain companies or governments, wanted to prevent talented agents from breaking into secret areas.

Biometric authentication involves identifying someone through their own biological characteristics - including fingerprints, iris, retina, hands, ear shape, voice and even lice body odor. Cyrille Bataller - Director of the European Technology Laboratory, one of the initiators using biometrics - thinks that companies will see a multitude of benefits in terms of security, automation and convenience.

He said: "This is a very safe method to assess personal identities. We can entrust control to machines instead of using the usual way of face-to-face inspection. This method also has points. Another convenience is that the company does not have to hire a person to go directly to the entrance and the company's employees do not always carry cards to check their identity. "

Statistics of biometric technology show that there is a significant increase in the number of companies that want to protect their workplace with this technology. However, so far biometric technology has not met all the needs of use. Itay Langer, of BioGuard (Israel), said: "Currently it is not possible to rely entirely on biometric solutions, because if an employee places his or her finger on a device that does not match the position at the time of sampling, the machine will not open to them, or if the employee has diabetes it is also a problem ".

There are many other legitimate reasons for businesses to decide not to use biometric solutions. Firstly, in terms of legal reasons, collecting too much personal information of employees. Secondly, the fear of many people touching the same location on the phone can spread the disease, especially in the health care area. And another important issue is that businesses must convince employees that the collection of their characteristics will not be used as a tracking tool.

Preventing strangers and allowing related people into certain areas is the main task of biometric devices. Currently, many biometric equipment products have been developed to the extent that the head of the "toy" manufacturing division for James Bond must be proud. Today, people can buy themselves a scanner capable of "registering" the owner's fingerprints no matter where they put their fingers.

Bioguard's ID-pod machine scans the inner vein of the hand to determine identity.

One of BioGuard's high-end products is a scanner (costing around $ 1,600) with the ability to map blood vessels in the hand to accurately identify who is allowed to enter. This scanner works on the principle of infrared (harmless health) via hand and compared with the previously saved image. This device helps overcome the worry of employees to touch dirty objects (because many people touch the same machine) because they do not need to put their hands on the machine but just put their hands in front of the "magic eye" of the machine.

Biometric identification machines are not only effective for securing steel doors (often found in banks' money rooms) or central servers, but also for laptops and even in printer, video scanner or copier.

Ollie McGovern, a US real estate developer, created a handheld biometric scanner to manage worker activity at construction sites and ensure they meet health and regulatory standards. safety regulations. This Simeio fingerprint reader - mostly used in the construction industry - is designed to only allow people with appropriate health and safety training to enter the building area.

Ollie McGovern said: "In the UK, occupational health and safety regulations are becoming more and more troublesome. Employers will be charged when someone is injured at the construction site. Construction contractors use Simeio to check whether the worker was properly trained, insurance status and safety equipment before entering the building ".

Simeio also played the role of a timekeeper to accurately track the time that a worker worked at the construction site. Advanced biometric systems, such as BioGuard and Simeio products, do not store fingerprint images . but immediately convert into binary code and delete the image.

In some European countries like Germany, employers must explain to workers' representatives about the presence of biometrics. In other countries, like France, the use of biometric equipment must be approved by the national data protection authority.