Is KFC Now Finger Scannin’ Good?
Written by Evan SchumanIs the KFC chain now going to have to tell employees that it’s Finger Scannin’ Good? That’s a possibility, given a move announced Tuesday (Sept. 20) by two of its franchisees to abandon password access to POS and switch to a fingerprint biometric authentication system.
The advantages are initially compelling, in that it makes it so much harder for associates to impersonate managers for fraud, whether it’s for stealing money directly, manipulating payroll records or letting employees falsely sign in for each other. The problem is that bored, persistent and resourceful KFC employees—armed with almost unlimited access to these biometric devices and potentially lots of free time during slower parts of the day—are quite good at finding security holes. Will it be a piece of Scotch sticky tape that will fool the system? Maybe the system can be fooled into accepting a new—and non-existent—manager? Given that the fingerprints are not being stored (only a numeric representation of the fingerprint’s datapoints), could the number be faked instead? All in all, this biometric approach is probably a very good idea. But few things are secure enough to hold up to under-paid, young, bored QSR employees, especially when management will likely be slow to react, preferring to believe that fingerprint biometrics are foolproof.
-Marc
September 22nd, 2011 at 8:56 am
This article implies that KFC is wasting money implementing biometrics. Is the author for or against?
September 22nd, 2011 at 9:57 am
Author replies: (By the way, “author” sounds so deliciously literary and cultured. We just be reporters here, but appreciate the nice phrasing.) The story didn’t intend to imply anything of the kind. Not sure where that is coming from, given that the blurb said, “All in all, this biometric approach is probably a very good idea.” That’s fairly explicit. Your last question, though (“is the author for or against?”), is not how we operate. Our goal is to present the information we gather, through in whatever analysis/context we can and then let the readers do what they will. Specific technology approaches may work wonderfully for some retailers and poorly for others. We wanted to point out some compelling advantages to this approach, but to also point out that the nature of a QSR would give employees extensive access and time to try and come up with workarounds. That’s not intended to be “for or against” as much as “FYI. You might want to factor this into your thinking.”