Biometrics

The biometric laptop is a new application of biometric fingerprint technology that is becoming widely used by corporate executives and office employees. The laptop has become a necessary business tool for many, as telecommuting and business travel become more popular.

At the Sprint Nextel complex in Overland Park, Kansas, almost every new employee is provided with a laptop. The company has realized that by providing employees the ability to work from a remote location they are able to be more productive. It allows employees to complete necessary daily tasks when they cannot be in the office due to a sick child, a doctor's appointment, or a sick day.

But how do you protect the corporation's confidential files from thieves of the laptops of remote employees? Security with passwords and encryption has long been used as a security solution for the laptop. However, professional computer hackers can easily break through this security, and access sensitive information. While some of these hackers are only having a bit of fun, more enterprising hackers sell the information to competing corporations that have low ethics standards.

Enter the biometric laptop. The biometric laptop has added security with a built in fingerprint reader. So how does it work? The fingerprint reader is embedded into the laptop underneath the keys and next to the mouse pad. When the user wishes to boot up the computer, they turn it on to a request for a fingerprint scan. The user presses their finger to the biometric laptop fingerprint pad, and a scan is made. If the scan matches, then the system boots into the operating system. If the scan does not match, another request for a fingerprint scan is made by the biometric laptop.

The biometric fingerprint identification makes the biometric laptop much more secure than traditional passwords or encryption. This is due to the fact that the security feature is independent of the operating system. If the fingerprint does not match, the user cannot get past the initial biometric laptop login screen. This makes breaking passwords and encryption of confidential material virtually impossible.

Of course, just as with any security technology, the biometric laptop can be fooled. It is common knowledge that thieves and criminals are only one step behind technologically. However, the chances of the average hacker getting into your biometric laptop are fairly slim. When combined with traditional security features such as passwords and encryptions, the biometric laptop is more secure than laptops past.

If you have a laptop that came out before the biometric laptop, you can add a biometric component to your existing laptop through the use of USB port or PC card additions and software. These biometric fingerprint readers add another layer of protection to your existing laptop. However, this is not as secure as the biometric laptop because the biometric fingerprint reader add on works within the operating system, and can be more easily bypassed by an experienced hacker.