Biometrics solve multiple-password entry problem

Users can now log into a plant-operations system by scanning their fingerprints, facial features, or retinas instead of typing in passwords.

Manufacturing Business Technology - August 2006

In what might seem like a bit of science fiction, users can now log into GE Fanuc's Proficy iFIX plant-operations system by scanning their fingerprints, facial features, or retinas instead of typing in passwords.

Proficy iFIX is a human-machine interface/supervisory control and data acquisition (HMI/SCADA) application. The biometric capabilities, available in the newly released version 4.0 of the package, are supposed to make life easier for manufacturers—particularly biotech and pharmaceutical companies that require workers to enter electronic signatures at various stages of the production process.

"Our pharmaceutical customers have been asking for this," says Roy Kok, GE Fanuc's senior product manager for Proficy HMI/SCADA software. "They see great value in collecting electronic signatures and creating operator audit trails, but the more you apply them, the more tedious it becomes to enter passwords continually. Biometric support alleviates this problem."

As Kok indicates, tightly regulated manufacturing environments require electronic signatures for compliance, tracking & tracing, and audit trails. Besides having to enter passwords numerous times, the need to remember strong passwords—i.e., combinations of letters and numbers—also can slow response times and lead to operator fatigue.

In a biometric-enabled HMI/SCADA system, operators submit to fingerprint, hand measurement, or retina scans that authenticate their identities and link them to their passwords. Then the security system automatically enters passwords when required to create electronic signatures or audit trails.

Proficy iFIX users can choose between an interface to Saflink's SAFsolution Enterprise Edition security software, or developer tools to build interfaces to any other authentication technology. Users pick their own biometric reader hardware to interface with the system.

Kok says current iFIX users can add the capability without making changes to existing HMI/SCADA applications.

GE Fanuc will roll out similar biometric enhancements to other products that support 21 CFR Part 11, the regulation requiring electronic signatures for authenticating drug manufacturing processes.

While GE Fanuc may be at the forefront of the biometric-enabled software movement, it is expected to have a lot of company soon. According to New York-based International Biometric Group, the global market for biometrics will grow from $2.6 billion this year to $4.6 billion in 2008. In addition to password authentication, biometric technology is used for access control and identity management in manufacturing, IT, retail, financial, and government operations.