HP SimplePass 2.0 Makes it Simple, Secure to Manage Passwords (Video)

Managing passwords for your digital life is often a complex solution that’s only mitigated with massive Excel spreadsheets and sticky notes on your computer to help you remember those log-ins, but exposes you to security risk. With HP SimplePass 2.0, HP is combining its biometric security fingerprint reader along with a one-time password environment to deliver to consumers a simple, secure way to log-into their favorite websites. The software is integrated with the hardware and helps to keep things simple, yet secure, to keep your online and digital life safe from hackers and protect you from identity theft.

At this time, HP is integrating PayPal and Ebay into its SimplePass 2.0 solution, and the company says that it is negotiating additional partnerships, including financial institutions, to help users remember their banking passwords.

HP SimplePass 2 Hands On Demo

The way the technology works is that a user would assign a log-in, say your PayPal account, to a finger. That finger is then scanned with the biometric reader. If the scan works, you’ll see a flashing white light next to the fingerprint reader and the browser will automatically initiate and direct you to the PayPal log-in site.

Where HP is taking this a step further than traditional biometric software is integration with the hardware. On the hardware side, your HP SimplePass 2.0-enabled HP laptop–the company is still looking into incorporating the technology into desktops–will generate a one-time password that authenticates the laptop with the PayPal site to let the site know that: 1) your fingerprint’s been validated, and 2) your fingerprint’s been validated on a system that’s associated with your PayPal account. The software-hardware integration is powered by VeriSign and is similar to competing systems like SecureID.

The process is simple–all users really need to worry about is setting up their fingerprint and entering the log-in and password one time. For example, a user can assign their right index finger to Ebay and a left middle finger to PayPal, and swiping the appropriate finger will launch the browser and automatically take you to the right login page and log you into the service that’s associated to that finger. Everything else is done discretely without the attention of the user.

The service is intended to prevent phishing and help users to protect their identity online, especially with the one-time password mechanism that’s done on the backend.

The service probably won’t gain traction until additional partners get on-board, and we’re hoping that banks, email providers, and really any major, legitimate website that requires a username and password to really work with HP as this can be a step to eliminating sticky notes placed on a computer that exposes a user’s login.

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