Biocryptology, a biometric authentication service that claims to make identity theft “virtually impossible”, had its British launch at London’s Science Museum.

The system gives the user a portable fingerprint scanner which generates a random number from biometrics, which can be verified by a central service operated by the firm behind the technology, Primary-Net.

When taking a fingerprint, the system uses a patented “life detection system” which reads parameters including blood flow, skin, and finger temperature to ensure the target is alive. This should prevent attacks using copies of finger prints, as seen on bypasses of the authentication system on Apple’s latest iPhone.

Biocryptology has been piloted, over the last two years, in a range of terminals designed for banks, military systems and immigration. One commercial US pilot was carried out by Nexus USA  in Rapid City, with the Biocryptology system provided by a company called Hanscan, which appears to be a predecessor to Primary-Net.

Primary-Net has invested $30 million in the technology, which sees over 8,000 keys generated on a ‘Primary’ device at the sender end. The identity of the user is validated at one of Biocryptology’s three global data centers. The primary device is individual to the user, and carried by them, to be plugged in by USB, wherever identification is required.

For the US trial, the firm developed another device, the Nexus SmartPay, which sits at the sales terminal, has its own fingerprint scanner and can identify multiple people. […]

Source www.techweekeurope.co.uk