Single Sign-On for Point-Of-Sales with Biometrics
Posted by Michel Nerrant on Sun, Feb 05, 2012 @ 11:05 PM
Securing the access to POS terminals and its applications has become more of a concern for enterprises under the mandate to comply with PCI, SOX or even HIPAA. In an environment where the workstations are being shared between employees, tokens used today can easily be defeated or duplicated, and most of the times use a simple 4 digit pin code. In addition, restaurants, pharmacies, hospitals ... are facing a large turn over and keeping the authentication simple and yet secure is not an easy task.
The solution is to use multifactor authentication, often using biometrics such as the PalmVein sensor from Fujitsu Corp, in conjunction with an eSSO application. The use of biometrics makes is easy to authenticate, and the IT staff does not have to manage the passwords anymore. The enrollment is often done right at the work station and the learning curve is keep (the user authenticates many times per day!). The eSSO software takes care of a number of issues by quickly unlocking the workstation (usually in less than 3s), single sign-on the user to their applications automatically, and ensures a 2 x factor authentication. In addition the eSSO software records all events and logs them for future use.