Chinese scientists successfully developed a new and sophisticated digital signature device to efficiently solve the identity verification problem under Internet environment.

The current digital signature in e-business usually adopts password as an access key, which is easy to get lost and decoded. While the digital signature device named "eBioSign" developed by Hangzhou Miaxis Biometrics Co., Ltd can solve the problem effectively.

The device, sized like a stamp, takes people's fingerprints as an access control method to protect private key. It raises the security level of private key administration and, therefore, improve security functions on the Internet such as identity verification, digital signature and data encryption.

Scientific statistics show one's fingerprint is unique among 5 billion people during a period of 300 years, which means using fingerprint as private key and password is of higher reliability.

The new device, using fingerprint verification to open digital signature, effectively raises the security level without fearing loss of password.

The device can so far store at most eight users' private keys, each corresponding to user's fingerprint. For more assurance, each user can store as many as four fingerprints of his/her own. As a result, the error rate of verification is reduced to almost zero.

(People's Daily May 8, 2002)