Here’s a look at 10 additional technologies circulating through the industry spin cycle.

By Network World Staff
Network World, 09/11/00

Sexy, but few get married to it

Biometrics is undoubtedly the sexiest security around. After all, it uses the human body to deliver unassailable proof of identity. Still, most IT managers aren't bringing it home.

The expense and effort involved in deploying biometrics products continues to relegate them to a niche. Biometrics largely remains the purview of governments and their close industry allies. According to research firm IDC in Framingham, Mass., biometrics sales reached $325 million last year, mostly to the public sector.

But even in the military, biometrics never quite makes it to the top of the must-do list. Later this fall, for example, the U.S. Department of Defense will introduce multipurpose smart cards as the main identification for military personnel. It looked into biometrics but decided these smart cards would use stored public-key digital certificates to access networks and office buildings, says John Przybysz, a Defense Department security director. Putting biometrics on the first-generation card could be "overwhelming" in terms of deployment and training, Przybysz says.

Plus, he adds, the industry isn't mature.

At least 40 biometrics vendors are jostling for market share, with Identix and Printak pushing for the lead. Microsoft has licensed I/O Software's Biometric API and products, intending to include them in the next version of Windows 2000. That move has angered the BioAPI Consortium, a 49-member industry group working on a specification called BioAPI.

- Ellen Messmer

Back to the main story

Will the SOAP bubble burst?

Crypto craziness

Stopping a virus cold

Win 2000, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1

Business-to-business bust

IP storage - a standard mess

VPN study plan

DSL ... Still not ready for prime time

IT ghostbusters

To top