Date: Sat, 24 Mar 2001 04:09:12 -0500 From: Mike Nowlin <mike@argos.org> To: David McNett <nugget@slacker.com> Subject: Re: Fingerprint authentication? Message-ID: <20010324040912.A28324@argos.org> In-Reply-To: <20010323064908.A28521@dazed.slacker.com>; from nugget@slacker.com on Fri, Mar 23, 2001 at 06:49:08AM -0600 References: <9164771DDCABD3118333005004E9446E43265B@mother.netcentralen.dk> <20010323064908.A28521@dazed.slacker.com>
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--82I3+IH0IqGh5yIs Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable On 0, David McNett <nugget@slacker.com> wrote: > On 23-Mar-2001, Michael Aronsen wrote: > > Has anyone been working on or know of any work being done on getting any > > fingerprint gadgets working in FreeBSD? >=20 > This is mostly off-topic, but I wanted to take the opportunity to point > out an excellent treatment of the downsides of biometrics (fingerprint > gadgets being the most popular such device these days) and concerns that > you should be aware of if you're considering adopting biometrics for > authentication in your environment. Just read the article - he does bring up some good points, but he does (sort of) miss one point - biometrics are most useful when combined with some other form of authentication. (What you have (fingerprint), plus what you know (password)). On that note, I'll put this on-topic for -hackers... (In my opinion...) Due to the upcoming HIPAA regulations mandated by HCFA (see note 1), I am extremely interested in writing a driver to read data from one of the various fingerprint gizmos on the market. Does anyone have any experience with these (good/bad), or suggestions as to which ones might lend themselves toward a FBSD driver? mike Note 1 (as promised) -------------------- (Non-US residents - this doesn't apply to you... Be grateful... :) ) HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act) is a set of rules scheduled to take effect in (last I checked - they keep changing it) October 2002 by HCFA (the Health Care Financing Administration), the federal agency that is responsible for Medicare, Medicaid, etc. Basically, HIPAA is designed to make sure that everyone gets a fair shot at medical insurance. However, there is a section in there that deals with privacy of medical records, and that's where the geek factor comes into play. The phrase going around the IT departments of health care providers right now goes something like "HIPAA will cost health care providers three to four times more money than Y2K did." (It's a big deal.) Essentially, the old "username and password" method of verification is completely inadequate - they want Smart Cards, fingerprints, retinal scans, infrared facial signatures, and the last four digits of your dog's Social Security number just to keep the guard, armed with an AK-47, to keep from shooting you as you walk up to the keyboard to type in your username and password. (OK, that's stretching it a little bit, but that's really the attitude they're taking with this.) =20 (Political statement starts here - sorry....) Ah, the joys of living in the USA... Can't let teachers discipline kids (and the parents get thrown in jail for doing so), but dammit, we'll make sure that nobody finds out that Joe Schmoe has high cholesterol and needs to get out and exercise a bit... (And yes, I do enjoy living here, but the political correctness of it gets to me at times.) --mike --82I3+IH0IqGh5yIs Content-Type: application/pgp-signature Content-Disposition: inline -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.0.4 (GNU/Linux) Comment: For info see http://www.gnupg.org iEYEARECAAYFAjq8ZDgACgkQJol4I8h9Gd83KQCgxWZfCrWiFpd5se4F/RE2C4QC T4UAnj8bS/dV5SiKIoUitpBkjnBso8Vi =UFaE -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- --82I3+IH0IqGh5yIs-- To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-hackers" in the body of the message
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