Geometric measurements of the human hand have been used for identity authentication in a number of commercial systems. Yet, there is not much open public literature addressing research issues underlying hand geometrybased identity authentication. This work is our attempt to draw attention to this important biometric by designing a prototype hand geometrybased identity authentication system. We also present our preliminary verification results based on hand measurements of 50 individuals captured over a period of time. The results are encouraging and we plan to address issues to improve the system performance.