Wednesday
May122010
'Finger Vein' Scanners Hit ATMs
Wednesday, May 12, 2010 at 9:01AM 
Leave your ATM card at home, and nevermind those "skimming" scams. Hitachi's "finger vein" technology has finally hit the Western world.
Used in Japan for years, the scanners detect the tiny veins in a person's fingertip, creating a unique identifier for each individual. The Montreal Gazette reports that a Hitachi scanner has been installed on an ATM in Poland, but the bank plans to expand to other locations soon. This is the first fingerprint-scanning ATM in Europe, a milestone that, as far as I know, has not been reached in the U.S.
Reader Comments (3)
Awesome technology....can't believe it hasn't been employed long before now.
Raises an important issue, however, in regards to increased threat to PERSONAL security.
An ATM card can be stolen, gamed, reproduced - all (except in the case of the card being stolen in an armed robbery) are non-physical; there is little or no chance of BODILY injury.
Once you start using an authenticator that is PART of your physical person, that leaves crackheads, strong-arm types, etc only one way to get that authenticator... :(
May lower the total number of these types of financial crimes, but at least SOME people would now only have 9 choices for pushing elevator buttons.
What do you think?
It's terrifying to image a future where financial crime is committed in such a violent way -- but it's a possibility! Hopefully the use of multi-factor authentication (such as a PIN code) will keep crime like that at bay. I wasn't able to determine if this Polish ATM is only using a finger scan, or if it also requires the customer to enter a PIN. It'll be interesting to see where this technology goes next.
That device actually scans your finger's veins, not the prints on the skin.