Pay By Vein
I wonder if payment platforms that rely on biometrics, such as Pay by Touch, are susceptible to a functioning dummy finger print. For example, the German computer magazine c’t shows how such a dummy can be created with home made tools. Is there a better biometric for payments? How about vein patterns?
As reported here, both Hitachi and Fujitsu have working vein pattern recognition technology. Clearly, at least conceptually, this technology could be used for payments in the same manner as Pay By Touch uses fingerprints. Of course this is perhaps just a better biometric and we could possibly identify more clever ones in the future. It is useful to keep in mind that biometrics themselves are helpful in authenticating transactions, but not necessarily the be all and end all. As security expert Bruce Schneier points out:
Biometrics are great because they are really hard to forge: it’s hard to put a false fingerprint on your finger, or make your retina look like someone else’s… Biometrics are lousy because they are so easy to forge: it’s easy to steal a biometric after the measurement is taken.
Source: Crypto-Gram
