Hitachi and Ubisecure are to integrate Hitachi’s finger vein recognition technology as a biometric authenticator within Ubisecure’s Identity-as-a-Service (IDaaS).
The partnership means the pair will provide a frictionless biometric experience that delivers usability and reduces the risk of a data breach – making it ideal for customer-facing use cases.
Hitachi’s finger vein biometrics stuff, Hand Gesture Technology, can be used at the user authentication stage for “onboarding” and subsequent logins. It can be activated through Ubisecure IDaaS, a SaaS product that allows developers to plug in the identity management functionality – such as single sign-on and multifactor authentication – to apps and services.
Hand Gesture Technology is claimed to enable fast and secure user identification through the unique vein patterns in fingers. This way, identity can be verified via a simple hand gesture to a camera in a standard laptop or desktop. By delivering the benefits of biometric authentication without the usual requirements for specialised and expensive reader equipment, the offering is especially suitable for mass adoption.
Simon Wood, CEO at Ubisecure, said: “We’re committed to providing customers with a range of secure authentication options, including biometric technology. For biometrics to be adopted at a scale they must be easy-to-use and, preferably, require no additional hardware. Hand Gesture Technology is an ideal way of implementing the security and convenience of biometrics without the common deployment challenges. For this reason, we’re delighted to be able to offer Hitachi’s breakthrough technology to our IDaaS customers.”
Ravi Ahluwalia, general manager, Security Business Group at Hitachi Europe said: “Those of us in the identity industry understand that passwords are not the best authentication method. However, the solutions that have attempted to replace the password also have their shortcomings. This is why we have pioneered Hand Gesture Technology: finger veins are non-replicable and cannot be lost or stolen. While the solution is now pervasive in the banking sector, our collaboration with Ubisecure will help us to expand that reach into other verticals.”
