Comment by projektfu
1 day ago
If an organization wants fingerprint scanners, they just have to provide them. It's about $15-50 per workstation, if desired. The main problem is they use up an increasingly scarce USB port. Some scanners also rely more on security by obscurity rather than protecting the channel. https://www.google.com/search?q=windows%20hello%20fingerprin...
It would be worth doing research to find the best fingerprint scanner that implements this well.
Face scanning is a poor solution because desktops usually do not have Hello-compatible scanners and the scanners on the Windows laptops aren't very good. They frustrate users who prefer darkened rooms or who sit in places with varying contrast from the windows. It is also weird the way the camera is constantly trying to find you, and so it blinks its red LED frequently until the computer goes to sleep.
Just really agreeing with you on security keys, but we also have to make sure they are really secure. Also, like the article says, they give you the device possession part, but not the user ID part, unless they have a biometric device built in.
> The main problem is they use up an increasingly scarce USB port.
This logic I do not understand. USB hubs exist and are more-or-less commodity parts these days. [0]
I'd be surprised if the fingerprint reader was anything faster than USB 2.0, and deeply offended if the reader did anything other than idle on the bus when it's not being used... so you're not going to be suffering any real bandwidth contention by putting that guy and a USB 3.x device on the same hub.
[0] They're also usually how motherboards that have a whole bunch of USB ports hook those ports into the onboard USB controller(s). (Do folks usually think that every one of the 10gbit/s ports on one's desktop machine could be simultaneously run at 10gbit/s?)