Product: TrueMe Internet biometric authentication service
Company: Pay By Touch

Next time you're having an identity crisis, just slip a digit onto a finger scanner and get instant assurance that you are who you think you are.

Pay By Touch doesn't expect consumers to invest in finger sensors just to alleviate personal angst; but it does bet fingerprint sensors will become a hot way to authenticate online transactions.

The company announced TrueMe, a biometric identification system to give PC users a secure way to identify themselves for Internet transactions. It enables businesses to offer customers, partners and employees secure, authenticated access to their computers, desktop applications, and password-protected Web sites and services, such as online banking and e-commerce.

Pay By Touch has partnered with UPEK, which is among the first providers of finger sensors supported by TrueMe. The USB-enabled device connects to PCs that do not have built-in sensors. UPEK sensors already embedded into laptops are also certified to use TrueMe software.

"The same level of hardware-based security and convenience UPEK provides to millions of users for their personal and business computers can now be extended over the Internet by creating a trusted path between businesses and their customers," said UPEK President and CEO Alan Kramer.

Key data points of a user's fingerprint are encrypted inside the finger sensor and combined with the unique device ID before they are sent to TrueMe authentication servers. The user's information is never exposed to the computer operating system or to the public Internet, according to Pay By Touch.

Authentication services decrypt and process the information, authenticate the user and ensure that he or she is authorized to use the specified device.

The user's identity is sent through a secure connection to the Web site or service the customer is trying to access. Multiple users reportedly can share the same computer by registering their individual fingers on the sensor, without compromising security.

Lenovo ThinkPads T60 and X60 are also certified to support TrueMe.

Pay By Touch
415-281-2200
www.paybytouch.com