To hear some tell it, all signs are pointing to an era when biometrics will be a key element of authentication for enterprises. Just how close that era is depends on who you ask.

For companies like UPEK, the time for biometrics is now. The company strategy has involved partnering with notebook vendors such as Dell, Lenovo and Toshiba to embed its fingerprint scanning technology into laptops. Now, UPEK is pushing biometrics as a mechanism for securing online transactions.

"A set of Web components can be dropped into any existing Web site that will then allow the user to authenticate using his fingerprint, assuming the user has the appropriate hardware, instead of a password," said Bill Bockwoldt, director of software solutions at UPEK.

The service, Bockwoldt explained, is built on industry-standard SAML (Security Assertion Markup Language) tokens to enable integration with existing identity management and access tools. At the moment, UPEK is demonstrating the online authentication service to Web services providers.

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