Biometric SecurityBiometric uses personal characteristics to identify users. When it comes to security, mapping unique patterns and characteristics into fingerprints, irises, or voices is considered light years away from requiring employees to memorize combinations of letters and numbers, which are easily compromised and easily forgotten. The technology works by taking measurements -- whether it's the weight and length of hand bones, the pattern of blood vessels inside the eye, or the pattern of fingerprints, and then to store the details, often called details, in a database. When a user scans a hand or retina, the new mapping is compared to the stored data. Access is granted or denied based on matching patterns unique to each individual. It is this ability to identify someone based on unique physical characteristics that is bringing biometrics to business. As more expensive transactions are conducted over the Internet, businesses increasingly need ironclad authentication of a person's identity. Add to that the growing number of internal security breaches and corporate espionage, and you'll find that network and security administrators are racing to find a better way to protect information from unauthorized eyes. “Someone who trades stocks online wants incredibly accurate security,” says Michael Thieme, senior consultant for International Biometric Group in Manhattan, an independent biometrics consulting and integration firm. Many recent security incidents make make people aware that they have a lot of data that is simply not as secure as they thought. If biometrics could account for even a small part of it. a huge market. And that's sure to make some users uncomfortable, or even reluctant, to hand over their fingerprints. Grant Evans, vice president of Identix, calls it a small problem. "Brother has all the information it needs on you, without your fingerprints," he says. Gail Koehler, vice president of technology for Purdue Employees Credit Union in West Lafayette, Ind., worried members would be upset when it first deployed fingerprint scanners in automated kiosks in its branches. Koehler says 12,000 members have registered their fingerprints with the credit union. “We spent the majority of our marketing dollars preparing to convince members that it was secure and not an invasion of their privacy,” she says. "It was a waste of money. We had virtually no objections. Members prefer security."