Fujitsu names UniCredit as first European customer for palm-scan authentication

Fujitsu Technology Solutions has named European bank UniCredit as the first major customer for its PalmSecure authentication system, which is on display at the Cebit trade show in Hanover, Germany, this week.

UniCredit will roll out the system in Italy as means of payment authorization. In that case, users enrolled in the system will be able to pay by holding their hand over a scanner on suitably equipped point-of-sale (POS) terminals, without the need for a card or PIN, the bank said. It is already testing the system, which it calls Papillon. The bank's CEO Federico Ghizzoni made the first payment on a pilot system at an Italian store belonging to upmarket cosmetics chain Kiko in mid-December.

PalmSecure, already tested with banks in Japan, uses an infrared sensor to scan the pattern of veins in the palm of the hand from a distance of about 5 centimeters, converting the result into a digital code. The system also detects the flow of blood through the veins, defending against the kind of fake-finger attacks that have bedevilled fingerprint authentication systems and making it pointless for thieves to cut off authorized users' body parts in order to defeat access control systems, said Fujitsu Technology Solutions CTO Joseph Reger.

There is no need to touch or swipe the sensor, making it suitable for environments where hygiene or resistance to dirt is important, such as hospitals or industry.

PalmSecure is an order of magnitude more accurate than fingerprint recognition, according to Reger.

Fingerprint scans have a false acceptance rate -- when someone else is mistakenly identified as the authorized user -- of around one in 100,000, compared to around one in 1.25 million for palm vein scans, according to Fujitsu. The false rejection rate -- where the authorized user is refused access -- is around one in 1,000 for fingerprint scans and one in 10,000 for palm vein scans, it said.

With greater accuracy comes greater cost, however. The scanner component costs about US$100 today, while a plug-in scanner module costs around $200. If demand for modules is sufficient, though, that cost could come down to around $20 as production volumes rise, Reger said.

Fujitsu has enrolled tens of thousands of users of different ages, sexes and ethnic background, allowing it to test the system's speed and accuracy with a large database of users. It says its own internal research has shown that palm vein patterns are unique to individuals and contain detailed characteristics allowing them to be distinguished from one another.

Nevertheless, one-factor authentication is not enough for sensitive deployments such as banking, Reger said. Fujitsu advocates two-factor authentication for such applications -- and this is also a legal requirement in some European countries, including Germany, he said.

PalmSecure's scanners can either be linked to a central back-end database with a separate enrollment system, more appropriate in a banking environment, or the functions of enrollment and authentication can be combined in an embedded system for access control. Fujitsu even envisions that the system could be built into cars as an alternative to existing security systems using keys or RFID tags.

Beijing's heavy pollution a boon for air quality monitoring apps

On Jan. 13, local developer Wang Jun found that downloads for his app had suddenly skyrocketed, totaling 58,000 in a single day.

"Usually, it only gets between 1,000 and 2,000 daily downloads", he said on Thursday.

But the spike in popularity wasn't due to any promotion or new feature. Instead, the cause was Beijing's pollution, with the air quality in China's capital reaching beyond hazardous levels, and off the index.

Wang is one of the developers behind the "China Air Pollution Index" app. And recently his product has garnered a new level of interest thanks to one of the worst bouts of prolonged pollution Beijing has seen.

"When the pollution went beyond the air quality index, all the social networks in China and media began paying attention to the problem," he said. "This caused the downloads to increase 30 times."

For much of this past month, smog in the city has blotted out the sun, and authorities have urged residents to stay inside in order to avoid exposure to the polluted air. Coal burning to heat homes during the winter has been cited as one major reason behind the dramatic decline in air quality.

Benefiting from the prolonged pollution, however, have been air quality monitoring apps, which have seen soaring download rates in the past month. In the case of Wang, his app now sees about 10,000 daily downloads.

Wang is the co-founder of Fresh-Ideas Studio, a small startup that began in October 2011, which has three full-time employees. The startup originally chose to develop an air quality monitoring app simply for "practice", he said.

"At that time the air quality was also bad," he said. "But we didn't think the app would get such a big reception".

The team then expanded it to include over 120 cities in the nation, with air quality data pulled from the U.S. Embassy and pollution monitors of China's Ministry of Environmental Protection. In total, the app has reached over 1 million downloads, most of them for iOS. Earlier this month, the company released an Android version.

Longcat Labs, another developer behind an air quality monitoring app for Beijing and Shanghai, said it also noticed a spike in downloads since Jan. 11. Downloads have tripled to about 100 per day, the company said in an email.

In the future, Wang's startup plans to continue improving its app, and will consider monitoring the air using its own equipment if its team can find an inexpensive solution.

He added that he thought it was ironical that his app succeeds when Beijing's pollution worsens.

"It's really weird. We are thinking about leaving Beijing," he said. "Our product is good, but the environment around us is getting worse."

Beijing's heavy pollution a boon for air quality monitoring apps

On Jan. 13, local developer Wang Jun found that downloads for his app had suddenly skyrocketed, totaling 58,000 in a single day.

"Usually, it only gets between 1,000 and 2,000 daily downloads", he said on Thursday.

But the spike in popularity wasn't due to any promotion or new feature. Instead, the cause was Beijing's pollution, with the air quality in China's capital reaching beyond hazardous levels, and off the index.

Wang is one of the developers behind the "China Air Pollution Index" app. And recently his product has garnered a new level of interest thanks to one of the worst bouts of prolonged pollution Beijing has seen.

"When the pollution went beyond the air quality index, all the social networks in China and media began paying attention to the problem," he said. "This caused the downloads to increase 30 times."

For much of this past month, smog in the city has blotted out the sun, and authorities have urged residents to stay inside in order to avoid exposure to the polluted air. Coal burning to heat homes during the winter has been cited as one major reason behind the dramatic decline in air quality.

Benefiting from the prolonged pollution, however, have been air quality monitoring apps, which have seen soaring download rates in the past month. In the case of Wang, his app now sees about 10,000 daily downloads.

Wang is the co-founder of Fresh-Ideas Studio, a small startup that began in October 2011, which has three full-time employees. The startup originally chose to develop an air quality monitoring app simply for "practice", he said.

"At that time the air quality was also bad," he said. "But we didn't think the app would get such a big reception".

The team then expanded it to include over 120 cities in the nation, with air quality data pulled from the U.S. Embassy and pollution monitors of China's Ministry of Environmental Protection. In total, the app has reached over 1 million downloads, most of them for iOS. Earlier this month, the company released an Android version.

Longcat Labs, another developer behind an air quality monitoring app for Beijing and Shanghai, said it also noticed a spike in downloads since Jan. 11. Downloads have tripled to about 100 per day, the company said in an email.

In the future, Wang's startup plans to continue improving its app, and will consider monitoring the air using its own equipment if its team can find an inexpensive solution.

He added that he thought it was ironical that his app succeeds when Beijing's pollution worsens.

"It's really weird. We are thinking about leaving Beijing," he said. "Our product is good, but the environment around us is getting worse."

Cadillac electrifies line up with ELR hybrid

Cadillac introduced a high-end hyrbid electric vehicle called the ELR at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit Tuesday.

To see the ELR, watch a video on YouTube.

The car is based on the Cadillac Converj concept car that debuted in Detroit in 2009. The ELR uses an electric motor for about the first 35 miles (56 km) of driving. After that a 1.4 liter gas-powered generator that's capable of generating 154 kW kicks in.

The ELR's battery is a T-shaped 16.5kWh (kilowat hour) lithium ion positioned along the car's center line. The 198kg battery pack can be charged by a 120V electrical outlet or a 240V dedicated charging station. At the latter, the battery can be completely recharged in about 4.5 hours, according to Cadillac.

The LED lights on the car are designed to cut down on its need for power and its 20-inch wheels balance efficiency and handling, according to the company.

The ELR also comes standard with the company's CUE navigation system, which includes voice recognition and a heads up display.

The car will begin production later this year with sales to begin in early 2014 in North America first and later China and Europe. A price was not announced.

LTE handsets in favor as China prepares to issue 4G licenses

As China prepares to launch its 4G networks, a steady stream of LTE enabled devices will begin entering the country next year, with close to 25 percent of all smartphone shipments designed for the next generation service, according to research firm IDC.

It's still unclear when China's 4G networks will be officially launched. But China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology has said the nation would issue its 4G commercial licenses this year.

Currently, China is holding trials of the new networks in various cities across the country. IDC's forecasts point to 4G services launching in China near the end of this year, or early in 2014, said analyst Teck Zhung Wong.

Projections show that in 2014, a quarter of all smartphones shipped to China will be designed for 4G, he said. By 2017, that figure will reach 50 percent

User adoption of 4G in China will be much faster compared with the launch of 3G in 2009, he added. "It was more expensive and consumers didn't have the habit of using a smartphone for a mobile lifestyle," Wong said. "But right now, consumers have accepted this."

As part of the upcoming launch, the nation's largest mobile carrier, China Mobile, is expected to kick-off commercial services of its LTE TDD (Long-Term Evolution Time-Division Duplex) networks, a 4G technology that the Chinese government is backing.

The technology is one of two LTE variants, the other being LTE FDD (Frequency-Division Duplex), a more popular standard in use among the world's other mobile carriers. Both, however, provide high speeds, with LTE TDD able to reach download rates of 100Mbps.

Starting next year, 25 million units, or about 6 percent of all smartphones shipped to China, will be LTE TDD enabled, Wong said. In 2017, that figure will increase to 19 percent, he added.

China Mobile's launch of its LTE TDD services, also known as TD-LTE, is especially important for the carrier, given that its 3G services have struggled to gain customers. Of China Mobile's 714 million customers, currently only 95 million are on the carrier's 3G networks.

Analysts have blamed the slow uptake on the initial lack of smartphones models designed to run on China Mobile's 3G network. But that may change for the carrier's upcoming 4G services. Apple, which has yet to offer its iPhone on China Mobile's 3G network, may finally do so once the carrier's LTE TDD network goes online, according to analysts.

Bill Clinton calls for healthcare price transparency, embracing IT to cut costs

NEW ORLEANS -- Former President Bill Clinton on Wednesday called for transparency in healthcare pricing and addressing chronic disease epidemics such as obesity in order to drive down the cost of care for all. He also called for embracing IT and letting go of outmoded administrative systems.

Speaking at the HIMSS 2013 conference here before a standing room-only audience, Clinton said the lack of IT capability in healthcare is keeping costs high and consumers ignorant.

"The absence of technology, in part, means consumers have no way of knowing what they're going to be charged, what their options are, in place after place in America," Clinton said. "What I think we should think about is what we can do to improve delivery and what we can do to improve what consumers get."

Information sharing, which is vexing the healthcare industry as it struggles to implement proprietary electronic medical record software and upgrade its medical coding systems, will be key to driving costs down, Clinton said.

Clinton cited Blue Button, a relatively new online personal health record system developed by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, as a model for sharing health information.

Blue Button allows veterans and dependents to select a "blue button" on the VA's personal health portal, My HealtheVet, and download their personal health information to be shared with providers, payers or others in a safe and secure manner.

When Clinton called for transparency in healthcare pricing, the crowd erupted in applause.

Pennsylvania, for example, every year publishes comparative data among hospitals on various health procedures, including what they charge and the measureable results, he said.

"Every single year, so far, the results have been the same. There is no correlation between what people pay and the quality of healthcare they get," Clinton said.

The most important correlation between treatment and outcomes, Clinton said, is how often hospitals performed a procedure. "It's just like you ... the more you do something, the better you get at it," he said, calling for adherence to standards for industry best practices.

Under the auspices of the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act, (HITECH Act), the federal government is requiring healthcare providers -- hospitals, clinics and private physician practices alike -- to implement electronic medical records (EMRs). Providers must also prove their meaningful use of those systems through a three-stage government process that is taking place over the next four years.

The government requirements around stage 2 of that process include criteria on how healthcare facilities can exchange key clinical information about patients and provide patients with online access to their health data.

IT systems that reinforce medical best practices, such as equipment sterilization procedures, are the best hope for driving down hospitals' preventable health problems and costs, such as infections.

Following breaches, experts call for two-factor authentication on Twitter

Twitter should quickly join many other Internet companies such as Google in providing users with the option of two-factor authentication, experts say.

The call for changes in Twitter security followed news Wednesday of the compromise of the official account of Saudi Aramco, the national oil company of Saudi Arabia. Hackers replaced the company's logo with the picture of Heath Ledger's portrayal of "The Joker" in the 2008 Batman movie "The Dark Knight." In addition, a series of tweets were sent to the oil company's 46,000 followers, the security firm Sophos said.

"It is high time Twitter implement something to augment account security," said Chester Wisniewski, a senior security adviser for Sophos. "Two-factor authentication would be a great option for protecting high-profile brands, celebrities and those who simply want that extra layer of security for their online identity."

Twitter did not respond to a request for comment.

Twitter is behind other Internet companies in providing the option of requiring a second form of authentication when accessing the service from an unidentified device. Such security usually involves typing in a one-time passcode sent to a mobile phone.

Companies offering the added security include Facebook, Google, Dropbox, Microsoft, PayPal and Yahoo. Recently, Evernote said it would rush plans for two-factor authentication, after a breach forced the site to reset 50 million user passwords.

Twitter has also suffered major compromises. Last month, "extremely sophisticated" hackers breached the microblogging site's servers and stole the user names and encrypted/salted versions of passwords for 250,000 users, the company reported.

[Also see: Cyberattacks, data breaches scare off investors, study says]

Following the break in, Bob Lord, director of information security at Twitter, advised users that they should be using strong passwords of at least 10 characters as part of what the site called "good password hygiene."

"Password hygiene, really?" said Rick Holland, an analyst for Forrester Research. "They didn't even comment on two-factor authentication. Twitter users expect more out of Twitter."

While two-factor authentication is not a silver bullet, it is a necessary step toward better security, Holland said. "I have to think that Twitter is working on rolling this out and want to ensure that the solution they deploy is scalable and secure."

Indeed, Twitter recently had a full-time job posting for a software engineer with experience in designing and developing "user-facing security features, such as multifactor authentication and fraudulent login detection."