The authorization of unique computer peripheral specimens to connect to a host computer employs a computer connected device storing both a unique identifier matched by a digital fingerprint authenticating the unique identifier, a device driver on a host computer for communicating with the computer peripheral device, and a policy module that communicates with the host to determine the security policy for the computer peripheral device. The host computer decides whether to allow the computer peripheral device be used by the host, according to the security policy set by the policy module.