The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) in the United States has developed a biometric login for employee devices that uses the TouchID fingerprint sensor on Apple's later iPhone models.”The main motivation there was refreshing several-years-old technology, but also embracing Touch ID as a way of enhancing the convenience of use of the devices,” Rick Holgate, ATF's assistant director of science and technology, told Fierce Mobile Government.”Right now we're using that as single sign-on onto the device,” he said, adding that Touch ID is “essentially a surrogate for entering a complex password.”Holgate told the newspaper that his team is working with the Justice Department to validate Touch ID “as an acceptable level of security”, while adding that Touch ID could bring significant enhancements to ATF employees.Late last week, US President Barack Obama announced that Apple Pay will be used by the US Federal Government for payment cards and social security and veteran's payments.These payments use the Direct Express payment network and GSA SmartPay systems, which involve some 87 million transactions and are worth over $26 billion a year. DirectExpress is a MasterCard branded product.Apple Pay will also become available for other transactions with the federal government, such as at national parks, starting in September, Apple CEO Tim Cook said last Friday.

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