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Technology

Keep your fingers out of my accounts

18 October 2006

“Digital security” has just acquired a whole new meaning.

Fingerprint scanners are increasingly used to control access to buildings, devices and services, but fingerprints can be stolen by physically “lifting” them or by hacking into the biometric code stored on a device such as a laptop.

To prevent stolen prints being used to access bank accounts or computer files, London-based company fingerPIN has developed a security system that combines fingerprint recognition with a version of the traditional PIN – using a series of fingers rather than numbers.

Users register four prints in a sequence known only to themselves. So even if…

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