Security techniques for biometric keyboard with continuous reading from in-line fingerprint sensors

An apparatus comprising:

• a network interface to communicate with a network;
• a biometric keyboard that has keys with fingerprint readers;
• and
• a processor coupled to the network interface and the biometric keyboard and configured to perform:
• accepting a login to the apparatus by a first user;
• receiving, from the fingerprint readers, first fingerprint readings indictive of first fingerprints of the first user responsive to typing on the keys by the first user;
• summing individual match scores, which indicate levels of similarity between the first fingerprint readings and known fingerprints, into a cumulative match score in a rolling fashion such that, upon receiving a next fingerprint reading after receiving a predetermined number of the first fingerprint readings, an oldest one of the individual match scores is replaced with a next match score for the next fingerprint reading;
• upon first determining the first fingerprint readings match known first fingerprints for the first user based on the cumulative match score, authenticating the first user as an authorized user;
• receiving, from the fingerprint readers, second fingerprint readings indicative of second fingerprints of a second user responsive to typing on the keys by the second user;
• and
• upon second determining that the second fingerprint readings do not match the known first fingerprints of the first user, automatically logging-out the first user to prevent the first user from using the apparatus.

A non-transitory computer readable medium encoded with instructions that, when executed by a processor of a workstation with a biometric keyboard that has keys with fingerprint readers, causes the processor to perform:

• accepting a login to the workstation by a first user;
• receiving, from the fingerprint readers, first fingerprint readings indictive of first fingerprints of the first user responsive to typing on the keys by the first user;
• summing individual match scores, which indicate levels of similarity between the first fingerprint readings and known fingerprints, into a cumulative match score in a rolling fashion such that, upon receiving a next fingerprint reading after receiving a predetermined number of the first fingerprint readings, an oldest one of the individual match scores is replaced with a next match score for the next fingerprint reading;
• upon first determining the first fingerprint readings match known first fingerprints for the first user based on the cumulative match score, authenticating the first user as an authorized user;
• receiving, from the fingerprint readers, second fingerprint readings indicative of second fingerprints of a second user responsive to typing on the keys by the second user;
• and
• upon second determining that the second fingerprint readings do not match the known first fingerprints of the first user, automatically logging-out the first user to prevent the first user from using the workstation.