For example, a bank could use a keystroke analyzer to identify customers before allowing them to transfer funds.Even if someone managed to steal a password, that person still wouldn't have the same typing rhythm as the customer.

Sally Hudson, an identity and access management analyst at IDC in Framingham, Mass., says BioPassword fills "the growing need for multifactor, strong authentication in both enterprise and Internet environments."

She says early adopters will come from banking, health care, e-commerce, government, education and technology sectors, with general enterprise use coming later.

Gartner's Allan says it's too early to tell if the technology will catch on in a big way but adds that it has a good chance.

"It's interesting," he says, "because this is one of the few biometric technologies for user authentication that we see clients enthuse about."