The Latest in IT Security

From Friday, customers in 25 countries will be able to log into the online payments system with just their fingerprint. To use it, youll have to be in possession of Samsungs latest flagship phone, the Galaxy S5, because only that handsets fingerprint scanner is currently integrated with PayPal. The two companies announced their partnership at the Mobile World Congress in February and the deal was welcomed by those in the cybersecurity community as a first step towards the wholesale replacement of the traditional text-based password with a unique biometric system based on the FIDO protocol. The FIDO Alliance is a group of high-tech heavy hitters, including PayPal, Lenovo and Google who have developed a scalable, universal biometric system that they want the web and tech manufacturers to adopt to keep consumers safe.