Fingerprint scanning is old-school, heartbeat monitoring is where it’s at

Unlocking your account using fingerprints is so yesterday and passwords are practically primordial. The Halifax banking chain in the United Kingdom is working on a new method that’s both more awesome and more secure: your heartbeat. Using a wearable device known as the Nymi band, Halifa can monitor and record a user’s heartbeat which it can use to identify the user and unlock their banking services for them. 

Passwords are easy to forget and fingerprints are easy to forge, so the Halifax bank is trying something new to protect customer privacy. It aims to use the human heart rate as a key to unlock your online banking services. Halifax’s system, which is currently at the proof-of-concept stage, uses a piece of wearable technology known as the Nymi band; it monitors and stores a user’s heartbeat via an electrocardiogram (ECG). Users must wear the Nymi on one wrist, and touch its top sensor with the opposite hand for it to work. The Nymi pairs with a smartphone via Bluetooth, using a companion app for Windows, Mac, iOS and Android. Removal of the wristband invalidates biometric authentication.