It’s sure cold outside. But IT is hot this winter with new legislation and new technology warming up data centers everywhere.

By Karen Cortés

Tell me, who are you? From the airport to the bank, everyone wants ensure that you are, well, you. Still, identity theft is on the rise and concerns over privacy plague consumers, information technology professionals and government agencies alike.

These days, the key to your information is quite literally at your fingertips. And biometrics, the science of identifying individuals through their biological traits, may soon be coming to a business near you—if it’s not already there, that is.
Enfield-based Control Module Inc. is a leading designer and manufacturer of automated data collection and workforce management systems for time and attendance tracking, inventory control, work process management and access control. The company’s customer base includes 160 of the Fortune 500, as well as small-to-medium sized enterprises across a variety of industries. President Jana Moak, also a director at the Connecticut Technology Council [CTC], is a recent recipient of the CTC’s Women of Innovation award for fostering an innovative environment at Control Module.

Control Module has more than 200,000 fingerprint biometric terminals deployed worldwide in a broad range of commercial and industrial applications. The terminals identify individuals through a fingerprint scan, control the access to secure areas and restrict the use of industrial machinery. The days of an employee persuading a friend to punch the clock on another’s behalf are fast coming to an end.

The method not only has the capability of safeguarding the employer from fraud associated with “buddy punching,” it also saves the company the expense of issuing a smartcard or proximity card used in conjunction with PINs. When it was first introduced six years ago, the fingerprint method required secondary authentication. “Where we are today, you can use just the fingerprint, [and achieve] recognition in the high 90 percent range,” says Moak. “You don’t have to worry about the cost of issuing or [replacing] cards. It’s a password for life — unique to you.”

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