TUCSON, Ariz.—Hughes Federal Credit Union has been presented with a national excellence award for outstanding approaches to technology. The CUNA Technology Council awarded Hughes for its entry entitled Using Biometrics to Build an Efficient Team and Better Member Experiences, describing how Hughes successfully piloted a palm authentication system to replace passwords.
“The award is recognition from peers for outstanding approaches to technology that have universal applications for all CUNA-member credit unions,” explained Rich Griesser, vice president of IT at Hughes. “There are common problems logging onto secure systems, such as forgotten passwords, password resets, insecure password storage; and most of all, loss of employee productivity due to these issues. To save employee time and increase member convenience and security, we agreed to pilot the Verifast Palm Authentication system. It works below the surface of the skin, reading the vascular signature of the palm, which is unique to each person and replaces the need for manually entering usernames and passwords. It’s been a huge success so far.”
Hughes currently manages over 60 unique applications that implement the palm authentication system, from deposit and loan systems to online banking and credit card systems.
“It’s fast, secure, and easy to use. Since implementing this technology, employees have saved hours of time previously spent logging into each application every time they need access and it’s saved numerous hours in help desk support for failed login attempts and password resets.”