Pierluigi Paganini
March 15, 2016
Fujitsu has announced plans to launch its digital payment system PalmSecure in Europe that is a security solution for biometric identification, which is offering the perfect user authentication for payment scenarios. It operates touchless, highly reliable, hygienic, and super-fast. The biometric authentication based on Palm vein recognition takes less than one second and can definitely enter the next level of payments soon.
Cash could well be a thing of the past in the not-so-distant future and it is becoming clearly obvious that the time, where Credit cards and pin codes have been used for payments has come to an that means more innovative and highly secure solutions are entering the banking technology. In the UK, 59% of consumers have made a purchase through a smart device, and 12% are more likely to make a purchase using their smartphone than they were 12 months ago. And with more and more people interested in mobile and digital payments, brands are racing to create ever-more secure ways to pay. As a case in point, MasterCard has created a secure way to pay that allows users to identify themselves using a selfie taken on their smartphone.
Fujitsu has announced plans to roll out its digital payment system PalmSecure in Europe that is a security solution for biometric identification, which is offering the perfect user authentication for payment scenarios. It operates touchless, hygienic, highly reliable and super-fast. The biometric authentication based on Palm vein recognition takes less than 1 second and can definitely enter the next level of payments soon.
The PalmSecure sensor captures more than five million reference points from someone’s palm-vein pattern to confirm their identity and allows them to pay for goods by just touching one of its sensors – no cash or credit cards needed here. The image capture and matching processes work without the need to touch the sensor’s surface, making it very hygienic. A person’s palm vein pattern remains the same throughout their life. Every palm-vein pattern is also unique. Individuals have different patterns in their left and their right hands, and even twins have different patterns. The palm vein device works by capturing a person’s vein pattern image while radiating it with near-infrared rays. The deoxidized haemoglobin in the palm vein absorbs these rays, thereby reducing the reflection rate and causing the veins to appear as a black pattern. This vein pattern is then verified against a pre-registered pattern to authenticate the individual.
In the graph below, Fujitsu compares some of the most common technologies by the criteria “accuracy” and “practicality”.
The following table ranks biometric methods on their False Acceptance Rate (FAR) and False Rejection Rate (FRR). These indicators define the security level of a biometric system (FAR) and the usability of a biometric system (FRR).
The way that people pay is changing; technology is advancing to a level that people might not have to carry credit cards ever again, let alone cash. Brands should be keeping abreast of these technological changes and consumers’ increasing interest in the quickest and easiest way for them to pay; after all the easier it is for people to buy, the more they will.
About the Author
Ali Taherian (@ali_taherian) is an enthusiastic information security Officer. He’s finished his education in information security and has recently been involved in banking software and payment security industry. Taherian is proud to be certified IBM Cloud Computing Solution Advisor and ECSA and enjoys sharing and tweeting about security advances and news.
Edited by Pierluigi Paganini
(Security Affairs – PalmSecure Technology, authentication)
