NIST Interagency Report (NISTIR) 7290 Fingerprint Identification and Mobile Handheld Devices: An Overview and Implementation

The use of mobile handheld devices within the workplace is expanding rapidly. These devices are no longer viewed as coveted gadgets for early technology adopters, but have instead become indispensable tools that offer competitive business advantages for the mobile workforce. While these devices provide productivity benefits, they also pose new risks to an organization's security by the information they contain or can access remotely.

Enabling adequate user authentication is the first line of defense against unauthorized use of an unattended, lost, or stolen handheld device. This report describes using fingerprint identification on handheld devices. Two types of solutions are described: one that uses the computational capabilities of the handheld device to authenticate a user's fingerprints, the other that uses the computational capabilities of a specialized processor to offload processing by the handheld device. Details of the design and implementation of both solutions are provided.