Fingerprint Cards‘ T-Shape sensor module for biometric cards has now been certified against updated Mastercard specifications, the company has announced.
FPC had previously established compliance with Mastercard’s Biometric Evaluation Plan Summary last year, with Fingerprints’ Michel Roig calling it “a very important achievement” at the time. Now, the company has announced that it “proactively” sought to ensure compliance with updated Mastercard specifications via the financial giant’s Fingerprint Sensor Evaluation Process.
The testing concerned more strict anti-spoofing capabilities that could detect attempts to use fraudulent fingerprint credentials to trick a payment card’s biometric authentication system. While fingerprint-scanning payment cards represent an obvious step up in security for contactless transactions, which can generally be used in tap-to-pay purchases regardless of who is holding the card, Mastercard is evidently seeking to ensure that a high standard of biometric security is upheld, perhaps anticipating a rising number of presentation attacks as biometric cards begin to circulate more widely in the coming months.
In turn, Mastercard’s enhanced standards are pushing its key technology partners to ensure that their solutions are state of the art.
“Yet again we are pushing technology boundaries by increasing the security features of our solution,” commented Roig. “This is an important achievement for our card partners, who can save time and money when launching and scaling second generation biometric cards. And ultimately for consumers, who will be able to enjoy a convenient and secure in-store payment experience.”
At the time of Fingerprint Cards’ previous announcement concerning Mastercard certification, Roig was SVP of the company’s Payments & Access business line. FPC’s board of directors has since conducted a strategic review that concluded with the decision to effectively split the company into two subsidiaries, with Roig now acting as the President of Fingerprint Cards Switzerland, in Zug.
Roig’s arm of the company remains focused on payment cards and access control, both of which are application areas well-suited to the T-Shape sensor designed for integration into card form factors. FPC announced the integration of the T-Shape into Freevolt Technologies’ S-Key access card toward the end of last year.
(Originally posted on FindBiometrics)
Follow Us