Fingerprint scan touted as best security solution
December 1, 2000 3 minutes read
Fingerprint scan touted as best security solution
Could a fingerprint recognition system be the best way to safeguard patient confidentiality and comply with the security standards set forth in the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) of 1996?
A company called DigitalPersona, based in Redwood City, CA, is touting its fingerprint scanner as the most secure and cost-effective way to keep private the information in computers used by health care personnel.
HIPAA "is certainly raising the bar on security to protect patient records," says George Meyers, DigitalPersona’s senior director of marketing and product management, "and the weakest link in the security chain is user authentication."
"We have encryption, firewalls, but we have still not secured user interface to the PC," he adds. "Now we basically use passwords, and people are forgetting them and writing them down, and companies are having to reset a lot of passwords. Forty percent of help desk calls for IT [information technology] managers are people forgetting their passwords."
HIPAA standards seek to curb access to sensitive and privileged patient information through complicated log-in procedures and passwords that require biweekly updates, Meyers points out, but the spirit of the law can be undermined through careless usage.
In addition to the mandated password changes, users forgetting passwords account for more than 25 changes a year, and that accounts only for a user’s access to one database, according to a statement from Fabio Righi, the company’s chief executive officer.
A study by the international analyst firm Forrester Research, in Cambridge, MA, concludes that every password change costs an organization up to $200 in lost time and administration costs, Meyers notes, which means the health care industry could spend millions of dollars in password administration.
It’s also likely, Righi states, that users will write down the new passwords on a note card to carry with them, thus compromising their effectiveness, or fail to log-off the computer while they perform other tasks, leaving sensitive data visible to others.
Fingerprint authentication will establish higher safeguards while reducing administrative costs, Meyers says.
The technology for fingerprint scanners, he adds, has come a long way from the old style, in which the user had to hold his or her finger "straight on, just perfect" on the sensor. "Now you can just tap on the sensor, and approach it from any direction. No one needs to guide your finger and hold it there for a certain time."
DigitalPersona’s biometric security products include U.are.U Online for the Internet and U.are.U Pro for networks, as well as its original product, which was designed for home and office computers, he says.
The cost for the software and the sensor, which is about the size of two 9-volt batteries and attaches to the side of the monitor or PC, is about $149 per workstation, Meyers says. There is also the option of buying a keyboard with a built-in sensor, which raises the cost per station to about $199, he adds.
For the Internet product, which will be available in early 2001, there will be an upfront charge and a monthly charge per user, which are yet to be established, Meyers says. "U.are.U Online is in beta form and available for a pilot program." DigitalPersona is the first to offer an authentication service provider for the Internet, he adds, which, among other things, enables secure access to patient records that are being modified over the Web.
U.are.U Pro, which was introduced in early summer 2000, is being used in banks and court systems and is being evaluated in hospital settings, Meyers says. "We’re working closely with [Southfield, MI-based] Superior Consultants," he notes. "They’re being asked about [this kind of product] by their clients."
U.are.U has received a number of awards, Meyers adds, including PC Magazine’s "Editor’s Choice," PC Week’s "Best of Comdex," and Network Computing’s "Editor’s Choice."
You have reached your article limit for the month. Subscribe now to access this article plus other member-only content.
- Award-winning Medical Content
- Latest Advances & Development in Medicine
- Unbiased Content