Here you can find the older Biometric News of June 2011. (Newest on top).
Every week, a selection of this news has been published in the Weekly Biometrics Newsletter.
You can subscribe to this (free) Newsletter by sending an e-mail to rene.bense@xs4all.nl
VeriFax has two products based on dynamic signature Biometrics.
Doc Secure:
Legally bind signatures to MS Word documents. Combine biometrics authentication with the means of inserting one's signature into a MS Word document through a plug-in.
Web Secure:
Authentication layer of security for your web portal. Specifically targeted at securing sensitive financial and medical data, Web Secure provides an additional layer of security beyond the typical login and password credentials.
In order to use these applications, you will need to order a specially made digitized signature tablet - The Wacom STU-500.
The graph illustrates the high sensitivity of the technology. From the graph, one can clearly see that the distributions of true signatories and attempted elaborated forgeries do not overlap, which means that the Verifax Biometrics device achieves unprecedented accuracy in discriminating the true signatures from forgeries.
VeriFax claims an accuracy (ERR) of 0,05%
To test it for yourself send an e-mail to alexander@vbiometrics.com receive the software and even the Wacom STU-500 tablet absolutely free.
Dynamic Signature Recognition (DSR) has come of age so it seems. So try it for yourself and check the claims.
A Utah lawmaker is looking to follow the Texas State Legislature in proposing a law that bans searches by airport security officials on airline passengers.
Rep. Carl Wimmer, R-Herriman, has opened a bill file that states Transportation Security Administration agents would not be exempt from the same requirements that a law enforcement official has when trying to perform a search on a person.
"It is a work in progress," Wimmer said. "What it would do right now is simply say TSA agents are not exempt from the requirement of reasonable suspicion or probable cause to pat down a citizen."
Wimmer's bill initially is being modeled after a bill that was being considered in the Texas Legislature, House Bill 1937. That bill states it would be an offense to search a person without probable cause and if the person performing the search touches the sexual organs of the other person receiving the search.
The bill caused some controversy in Texas, as a U.S. attorney from San Antonio reportedly sent a letter to Texas lawmakers claiming the state had no authority to regulate federal agents and employees. The letter went on to say the federal government would seek to block the law if passed and that TSA would likely shut down any flight or series of flights for which it could not ensure the safety of the passengers and crew.
The 2011 Vancouver Stanley Cup riot that broke out in the downtown core of Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada on Wednesday, June 15, 2011, happened directly after the Boston Bruins' win over the Vancouver Canucks in game seven of the Stanley Cup Finals. The riots resulted in 140 reported injuries and 100 arrests, and caused an estimated $1 million in damages to public and private property. the Insurance Corporation of BC (ICBC) has received over 100 claims related to the riot.
As a result of social media sites and the recent increase in cell phone cameras, there was a huge amount of documentation of the riots by citizens, and along with online campaigns to identify rioters, over 1 million photos and 1000 hours of video of the event has been submitted to Vancouver police.
This has prompted the ICBC to offer Vancouver police the use of the facial recognition software they commonly use to identify facial characteristics in driver's license photos to prevent identity fraud. The preexisting driver's license database images would prove useful to act as a cross-reference against pictures taken the night of the riot.
The UIDIA's Aadhaar project, the world's largest scale biometric identification initiative, is off to a fast start. In a country where 500 million people don't have a reliable form of identification, it might seem like the 4 million registrations in the first 6 months of a 5 year project is a failure, but this number surpasses initial milestones by quite a bit.
As of July 2009, chairman Nandan M. Nilekani's goal was to initially issue the first million IDs within 12-18 months, but the UIDAI hit that mark by January 2011. When one considers that the United Kingdom's universal ID program, was hindered due to costs and privacy concerns, it's clear that India is on its way to becoming a biometric identity management trailblazer.
Each registered citizen has images of both irises, a complete set of fingerprints, and a photo collected, all of which are checked against the existing database, resulting in the assignment of a unique 12-digit number. A single fingerprint or iris scan will then be able to positively identify them.
The technical design and development fell upon a group of specialists with start-up experience in Silicon Valley. For six months, they lived and worked out of a three bedroom flat in Bangalore, fleshing out the core design of the biometric system. They modeled the system after NIST, ISO, and FBI specifications, prompting them to adopt the use of existing devices and data interchange formats. This should allow the Aadhaar project to avoid the legacy issues which have arisen in other projects, which initially relied on a single private biometrics equipment vendor or proprietary format.
Citigroup Inc. revealed on June 9th that computer hackers breached the bank's network and accessed the data of over 200,000 bank card holders in North America, including their names, account numbers and contact information. On Friday June 17th it was reported that the actual breach affected more than 360,000 customers. This is just one of many breaches that have taken place in 2011.
Verizon and the U.S. Secret Service recently collaborated to determine the number of data breaches in the U.S. and they found that the number of breaches in 2010 was 141 and there have already been 761 in 2011. The increase in activity is staggering.
The time has come for biometrics to come out of the closet and take center stage.
Why is it so important to embrace this new technology? Most infrastructures that process our transactions in the enterprise world (e.g. online banking, etc.) are secured by technologies that breach us. Hackers are becoming smarter each day; they can be around the world and cyber-accessing your personal information.
A majority of people worldwide use online or Internet banking to pay bills and monitor their accounts. As technology and new devices advance, our cyber security needs to advance as well. Worldwide shipments of app-enabled devices such as Smartphone's and iPads will reach 284 million by the end of this year. By 2012, the number is expected to reach 462 million devices shipped.
The iPhone is being deployed or tested by 80 percent of Fortune 500 companies and the iPad is being deployed or tested by 60% of the Fortune 100.
Mobile banking is a fast growing trend. It is predicted that by 2015, 50% or more of U.S. mobile users will be conducting transactions from their mobile devices. While this new technology allows greater access and opportunity for consumers, it also leaves them vulnerable to cyber security attacks. Instead of using passwords, pins and tokens, which have proven to be unsecure and ineffective, BIO-key offers finger biometric technology to replace outdated methods like passwords and tokens.
Nintendo president Satoru Iwata revealed that no, the insane Vitality Sensor peripheral hasn't been cancelled. Nintendo just ran into a small problem -- human bodies are weird and unpredictable.
"This is a totally new type of entertainment," Iwata told investors, "and there are large individual differences in the biological information of humans. For example, if it was acceptable that only 80% of the users thought the result was natural, then we could propose this to consumers right now.
However, we are aiming for a level of quality in which 99% percent of consumers feel comfortable, and that is why this project is taking time to complete." We suppose that the Vitality Sensor would be even less fun than most of us imagine if it didn't even sense properly.
The variation in feedback is apparently a major hurdle. While Nintendo's not giving up, Iwata warned investors that "now I cannot clearly say when we will be ready to put this on the market." And though he didn't mention it, Nintendo will likely face another hurdle thanks to the delay -- having to adapt the Vitality Sensor to work with a new console.
MALAYSIA'S government says it plans to gather the fingerprints of hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants next month under its largest-ever amnesty program, which will enable many of them to work there legally.
Authorities estimate at least 2 million foreigners work in Malaysia illegally, mostly from neighbouring Indonesia.
Deputy Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin said the month-long nationwide exercise starting July 11 will be Malaysia's biggest effort to manage its growing population of foreign workers.
The fingerprints will be used to create a biometrics database that will enable the government to monitor its foreign worker population and combat problems such as fake identity documents, he said.
"This will be one of our biggest exercises ever. It won't be easy but we will manage," Muhyiddin told reporters.
He said no action will be taken against illegal immigrants: "We want to encourage them to come out."
Home Minister Hishammuddin Hussein said the amnesty was a practical approach to fill up labour shortages in Malaysia and protect illegal immigrants against human traffickers and unscrupulous employers.
"What we are up in arms against are those who abuse them ... those who treat them as modern-day slaves. That's what we are combating," he said.
Legal foreign workers make up 2 million of the country's work force of 12 million.
Cell phones are not more the devices solely for the purpose of communication. Consumers around the world use them for surfing web, carrying out monetary transactions and also for storing sensitive data and information. All such cell phone utilities demand apposite level of security. Biometric security is extending its reach to cell phones as cell phone manufacturers are making all good attempts to use the technology for safety and security of mobile devices.
There are many concerns related to cell phone security and biometric systems address each one of them. Let’s discuss them one by one.
Loss of Information
Most of the cell phone users are concerned about the risks involved in storage of information in their devices. Biometrics help solve the issues by providing features like phone locks and content locks. In general sense, access control is taken care of by implementation of biometric systems in cell phones.
Device Theft
Another concerning issue is related to the possible theft and misuse of cell phones. Phone locks and personalized number dialers are some of the options that biometric systems offer to prevent cell phone misuse even if the device is stolen.
Mobile Services Usage
The most important concern is related to the security of mobile banking and mobile commerce activities that are gaining popularity in today’s world. Cell phone users are increasing the use of their devices to make online payments and to use a variety of services. Appropriate level of security for using these services is offered by implementation of biometrics in cell phones.
Payment authorization and eWallet personalization are some of the features associated with biometric eCommerce or what can be called mobile commerce.
Biometric systems can be implemented on cell phone using different biometric techniques. The most popular ones include:
- Fingerprint recognition
- Face recognition
- Iris pattern recognition
- Voice recognition
Use and implementation of biometrics in cell phones is further enhanced by combining the technology with existing cell phone security arrangements. For instance, a cell phone user may have to authorize his mobile banking transactions through biometric recognition as well as using passwords and SMS codes. This is indeed a sophisticated security arrangement for the people who are highly dependent upon cell phones for a variety of purposes that demand high-end security.
Langone Medical Center said it is the first hospital in the Northeast to use a biometric infrared scanning system that converts a digital palm image into a unique patient ID.
The technology, called PatientSecure is a biometric reader that uses an infrared light to map an image of the blood-flow pattern through the veins in a person's palm. That digital image is then converted into a unique patient ID that can be used with the medical center's electronic health record (EHR) system.
The technology has been deployed at about 14 other U.S. health systems.
NYU Langone piloted the palm-scanning technology last month at its Internal Medicine Associates faculty group practice.
Patients are offered an opt-in clause to use the technology. Since going live last week, more than 8,000 patients have agreed to use PatientSecure.
"Vein patterns are 100 times more unique than fingerprints," said Dr. Bernard A. Birnbaum, senior vice president of hospital operations at NYU Langone. "As a result, PatientSecure provides a safe, secure, easy and fast way for our patients to register for care at the medical center. It not only protects privacy and enhances quality, but will transform the patient experience."
Datastrip, a leading provider of mobile biometric identity solutions is pleased to announce that their DSV3 range of handheld biometric verification & e-passport readers have been approved for purchase by federal agencies under the General Services Administration's FIPS 201 evaluation program. The approvals enable the Datastrip devices to be used for identity verification under Homeland Security Presidential Directive 12 (HSPD-12).
The DSV3 product family consists of EasyRead and the EasyVerify. The EasyRead is the first and only mobile biometric device offering a one-step inspection procedure for securely validating Machine Readable Travel Documents (MRTDs) and verifying document holders.
The EasyRead reads and inspects first- and second-generation e-passports and other documents in accordance with the International Civil Aviation Organization's 9303 standard and extended access control specifications. The device also reads border-crossing credentials and government-issued documents supporting US-VISIT and NEXUS Border Crossing programs.
Datasheets can be downloaded here and here.
When the previous Government wanted us to carry ID cards — and remember this was at the height of the anti-terror campaigns — the UK shrank from the idea as a form of totalitarian nightmare.
It was seen as too Big Brother, too expensive, and ultimately pointless, largely because it wouldn’t be obligatory. After spending billions (£10bn-£20bn according to the London School of Economics) on the idea, the cards were scrapped.
Good riddance, many said at the time, but there’s a danger that in the hullabaloo over the problems of establishing initial ID and how ID cards wouldn’t stop terrorism, the baby was thrown out with the bath water.
According to new research from analyst firm Frost and Sullivan, universal multi-application cards are the next big thing in the electronic identification world and they could bring real benefits to users. At least as advertised, the next wave of cards isn’t about Checkpoint Charlie-style “show me your papers” security — it’s about access to services.
Russia (which admittedly doesn’t have the best track record on human rights and may not be the best example of state benevolence) is working on one of the most ambitious such projects, the Universal Electronic Card.
When it goes live next year, the card is expected to be adopted by 1,000 national and regional services and 10,000 commercial enterprises. Trebles all round.
With contact and contactless access, the card is designed to prove identity, act as a digital signature, carry medical insurance and pension information. All very useful for accessing state-run services, but if a card can perform half a dozen tricks, why not teach it a few more, too?
The UEC will also provide Oyster card-like access to public transport, act as a credit card to pay utility bills and buy goods online, and make appointments for the doctors. Oh and it’ll work for contactless payments, too.
“The UEC project in Russia is the first one in Europe including all these verticals,” said Jean-Noel Georges, a researcher for Frost and Sullivan. “Except for the fact that this is not yet an electronic vote card, UEC is the most interesting and full-scale project undertaken in Europe at the moment.”
NEC Corporation announced its inaugural participation featuring some of its latest technologies at the eGov Global Exchange 2011, which kicks off at the Marina Bay Sands in Singapore today.
The eGov Global Exchange 2011 is held in conjunction with CommunicAsia 2011 and EnterpriseIT2011, part of the Infocomm Media Business Exchange 2011 (imbX 2011) featuring the latest e-Government concepts and solutions offered by the infocomm industry worldwide.
At this exhibition, based on its theme of “Building Safer Cities – using technologies to safeguard lives and property”, visitors can walk through a thematic environment of a “safe city”, and envisage how NEC’s innovative integrated technologies and solutions can be used and adapted by public and private institutions to enhance the safety and security of countries or businesses, bolster law enforcement, and monitor and manage energy and environmental resources. These real-life applications safeguard:
High tech finger scanners that were ballyhooed a couple of years ago as the sure fire way to ID Seminole County students using lunchroom charge accounts are being dumped in favor of a simpler and less costly procedure.
Just looking the kid in the face.
Linda Daniels, food service supervisor for the school district, says the district is ending its four-year experiment with biometrics.
With a $23,000 renewal on an agreement with Educational Biometric Technologies for maintenance and support coming up, Daniels searched for a cheaper alternative and found one at her fingertips.
The district already has photos of students in its electronic records and the lunchroom cash register screens already had the capability to display those pictures, unbeknown to officials until they looked into it.
So Voila! Mason walks through the lunch line, says her number, the clerk pops her picture, nods that it is her and she charges lunch.
The finger scanners were used in seven schools: Pine Crest Elementary, Milwee and Millennium middle schools, and Lyman, Winter Springs, Hagerty and Seminole high schools. Use in Pine Crest was discontinued two years ago because the scanners did not work well with little kids’ fingers. The new photo system will be used in all middle and high schools in the fall.
Daniels said a security check is needed in lunchrooms because students – especially playful middle schoolers – get a kick out of charging lunch to other students’ accounts. He said that parents in affluent Seminole often put hundreds of dollars into lunchroom accounts or even have open withdrawal from credit cards to cover purchases.
Last year, administrators in the City of Winter Park, Fla., realized they had a serious compliance risk in their police department. The FBI's Criminal Justice Information Services Division has regulations that call for tight access controls for records. However, many officers share workstations and, therefore, also share passwords. The solution, they realized, was to deploy fingerprint scanners that would enable individual authentication.
Last year, administrators in the City of Winter Park, Fla., realized they had a serious compliance risk in their police department. The FBI's Criminal Justice Information Services
Division has regulations that call for tight access controls for records. However, many officers share workstations and, therefore, also share passwords. The solution, they realized, was to deploy fingerprint scanners that would enable individual authentication.
"CJIS calls for two-factor authentication and we concluded the best -- and least expensive -- way to deal with that was the use of biometrics," says George Maldonado, the city's assistant administrator.
Last night, at the Third EPIC Champion of Freedom Awards Dinner, we gave an award to Susie Castillo, whose blog post and video of her treatment in the hands of the TSA has inspired thousands to complain about the agency and their treatment of travellers.
Sitting with her at dinner, I learned yet another way to evade the TSA's full body scanners: carry a small pet. She regularly travels with her small dog, and has found that she is always directed away from the full-body scanners and through the magnetometers. I suspect that the difficulty of keeping the dog still is why TSA makes that determination. (The carrier, of course, goes through the x-ray machine.)
I'm not sure what the TSA is going to do now that I've publicized this unpublished exception. Those of you who travel with small pets: please let me know what happens.
(For those of you who are appalled that I could give the terrorists ideas on how to evade the full-body scanners, there are already so many ways that one more can't hurt.)
http://www.susiecastillo.net/blog/2011/4/25/...
The National Institute of Standards of Technology (NIST) is working to establish protocols to ease implementation and increase interoperability for biometric devices. A team within NIST sees Web services as the key to extending biometrics across platforms, solutions and devices.
The Biometric Web Services (BWS) project, a five-person team within NIST’s Information Technology Laboratory Image Group, is creating specifications for biometric devices to use Web services for interoperability.
Ross J. Micheals, NIST’s supervisory computer scientist and leader of this project, explains that in the current climate, sensors and matchers need to be built from the ground up. As new technology comes on the market, the devices may not necessarily be able to interact with a user’s current system. In a nutshell, Biometric Web Services is aiming to make it easier to bring biometric capabilities to more devices than ever before–devices that would otherwise require an investment in a specific combination of hardware and software.
Currently biometric devices require dedicated software to interact with other electronic devices (e.g. computers, handhelds, mobiles). When either device changes, the wheel must essentially be recreated–or at least the software that drives it. “If devices can understand the Web inherently and the device changes,” explains Micheals, “you don’t have to rely on the software that hinders interoperability.”
With the budget battle underway, the case for a strong identity credential for Medicare may be too good for Congress to pass up. Smart cards could help the federal government to reduce Medicare fraud and abuse to the tune of $370 billion in the next 10-years, says Kelli Emerick, executive director of the Secure ID Coalition.
More than ever before, Americans believe that the budget deficit is a major problem that must be addressed. This is also a consensus across party lines. A recent Gallup Poll found that 89% Republicans, 81% Democrats and 79% Independents believe it is an issue.
Emerick laid out the case for the new credentials at the Smart Card Alliance Annual Conference in Chicago. She said that the U.S. Department of Justice estimated Medicare fraud at $60 billion annually. The federal government isn’t the only one looking at this issue, states are proposing legislation that would also require stronger identity credentials for access to Medicaid.
With Medicare making up 23% of the federal government’s budget, only second to defense spending, there are differing opinions on how to keep costs in line.
IncentOne, the leading provider of incentive solutions to the healthcare industry, has launched the first outcomes-based biometric incentive program through its Health Power™ platform. With this solution, IncentOne will enable payers, health service companies, employers, governments and administrators to align incentives to outcomes and improvements in 20 different biometric measures.
As part of the solution, these outcomes can also be combined with participation-based biometric activities and non-biometric activities for a turn-key engagement solution.
Key features of the solution include the ability to:
Ø Combine outcomes and participation-based programs
Ø Set desired biometric outcomes for 20 measures including Body Mass Index, Blood Pressure, Waist Circumference, Waist to Hip Ratio, Total Cholesterol, HDL Cholesterol, HDLc Ratio, Triglycerides, Glucose, A1C, Cotinine, and LDL Cholesterol
Ø Set absolute, percentage or minimum improvements for each measure
Ø Require multiple biometric measures to be reached for incentive earning
Ø Set different target levels for men and women for each measure
Ø Implement pass/fail criteria for each measure
Ø Integrate data from past testing periods
Ø Utilize multiple testing periods
Ø Utilize physician attestation forms for alternative facilities
Ø Allow for reasonable alternative health activities based on physician recommendations
Ø Manage the process for contested measures
“Biometrics are a central component of any outcomes-based engagement strategy.” said Michael Dermer, President and CEO of IncentOne. “IncentOne’s customers can now execute a wide variety of outcomes-based designs tied to biometric data that have demonstrated cost savings. We believe that Incentive Driven Healthcare™ is the next wave in healthcare and this is one step to help our customers see that movement in action.”
“Integrating outcomes-based biometrics and combining them with other health management activities that target health conditions and improvements in these measures is a powerful combination” commented Peter Hayes, Principal of Healthcare Solutions and former Director of Health Benefits of Hannaford Brothers. “With this solution IncentOne offers not only outcome driven results but the type of integration that often eludes the healthcare community.”
Experience research with state-of-the-art media technology: at St. Pölten University of Applied Sciences, Austria. On the evening of 23 September, the University will merge research, art and lifestyle under the motto "FIT for research". The unique combination is Austria´s contribution to European Researchers´ Night 2011.
The European Researchers´ Night is a central pillar of the European commitment to spark enthusiasm for research. Many institutions apply to participate. This year, St. Pölten University of Applied Sciences, together with PR&D, an international PR agency for Research & Education, managed to convince with their ideas: state-of-the-art media technologies make it possible to experience research results that surround us with all senses. Music, dance and cooking will take centre stage along with electronic wearables, audiovisual animations and intelligent biometrics.
Co-Director of St. Pölten University of Applied Sciences, Dr Gabriela Fernandes, comments on the ideas: "Our research focuses on application. Therefore it is highly relevant to the general public. It is ideal for awakening enthusiasm for research."
The central idea of the evening is reflected in the title "FIT for research". Research makes you fit for life. Wearables represent a salient example of this - clothing with added functionality. This is a field of research with which St. Pölten University of Applied Sciences is increasingly attracting attention.
On 23 September, for instance, all scientists will sport wearables that can transmit information about their work to visitors´ mobile phones. And that´s not all! Clothing that changes colour according to the surroundings and lederhosen with an electronic beat will also be shown.
More information can be found here:
http://www.fit-fuer-forschung.eu/index.php?lang=en
When Club One approached Anne Massey about studying the success of its new virtual club in Second Life, she accepted the opportunity with some skepticism. An expert on the intersections of technology, business and society, Massey wondered whether a 3D weight loss club would be as effective as its real-world counterpart.
I spoke last week with Massey, a professor of information systems at Indiana University, about the surprising results — and about how what this virtual experiment means for the future of weight loss programs. Below are excerpts from our interview.
On how the study was conducted:
We asked the question: Can you deliver a weight loss program through [a 3D virtual] environment that is at least as effective as a real world, face-to-face environment?
We had a group in the traditional face-to-face program. We compared them to two groups that were in the virtual program [Club One Island]. The program runs over 12 weeks. We did baseline measures of their bio-metrics and their behavioral perception. We did post-measures at the end of the program and collected other data along the way.
Scanning prints at two meters could mean safer security checks.
Over the years, fingerprinting has evolved from an inky mess to pressing fingers on sensor screens to even a few touch-free systems that work at a short distance.
Now a company has developed a prototype of a device that can scan fingerprints from up to two meters away, an approach that could prove especially useful at security checkpoints in places like Iraq and Afghanistan.
The device, called AIRprint, is being developed by Advanced Optical Systems (AOS). It detects fingerprints by shining polarized light onto a person's hand and analyzing the reflection using two cameras configured to detect different polarizations.
Joel Burcham, director for projects at the Huntsville, Alabama-based company, says AIRprint could help make authorization more efficient in lots of settings. Instead of punching a keypad code or pressing fingers to a scanner, individuals could simply hold up a hand and walk toward a security door while the device checks their identity.
"We're looking at places where the standard methods are a hassle," says Burcham. For instance, AIRprint could be linked to a timecard system, he says, to help avoid a logjam at manufacturing plants at the start or end of the workday.
Key pattern analysis (KPA) in the computer world is similar to performing a piano concerto. Unlike a kitten on the keys, your keystroke pattern can protect you from a musical sour note, or from a stolen computer password. Timing is crucial to a good song, and now it may be the answer to foiling hackers.
This approach to securing your password is a form of biometrics which also encompasses fingerprints, iris and retina recognition, gait analysis, and now typing patterns. KPA .is relatively new and still has its shortcomings. However, individuals at several universities, such as Ravel Jabbour, Wes Masri and Ali El-Hajj of the American University of Beirut, in Lebanon, and Daniele Gunetti, Claudia Picardi, and Giancarlo Ruffo, Department of Informatics, University of Torino, have been testing how to perfect the model. They have been looking into its use for both securing data and identifying the user.
Many aspects of typing are taken into account. The length of time a key is pressed, the time between pressing one key and then the next, also know respectively as duration or dwell time and latency or flight time, are all recorded based on the electronic signals from a standard keyboard. Similar to voice recognition software, such as Dragon Dictate, the user must ‘teach’ the computer how they type, by repeating their password several times, so a profile of their pattern can be developed.
Americans must to decide if, in the name of homeland security, they are willing to allow TSA operatives to storm public places in their communities with no warning, pat them down, and search their bags. And they better decide quickly.
Bus travelers were shocked when jackbooted TSA officers in black SWAT-style uniforms descended unannounced upon the TampaGreyhound bus station in April with local, state and federal law enforcement agencies and federal bureaucrats in tow.
A news report by ABC Action News in Tampa showed passengers being given the signature pat downs Americans are used to watching the Transportation Security Administration screeners perform at our airports. Canine teams sniffed their bags and the buses they rode. Immigration officials hunted for large sums of cash as part of an anti-smuggling initiative.
The TSA clearly intends for these out-of-nowhere swarms by its officers at community transit centers, bus stops and public events to become a routine and accepted part of American life.
The TSA has conducted 8,000 of these security sweeps across the country in the past year alone, TSA chief John Pistole told a Senate committee June 14. They are part of its VIPR (Visible Intermodal Prevention and Response) program, which targets public transit related places.
All of which is enough to make you wonder if we are watching the formation of the “civilian national security force” President Obama called for on the campaign trail “that is just as powerful, just as strong and just as well funded” as the military.
Watch the video here:
I cofounded Vignature, a provider of image-based electronic signatures, earlier this year. Prior to developing the Vignature app for iPhone 4 and iPad 2, I’ve had a long history of writing code. I got my first computer, an Atari 400, when I was 10 years. I started writing assembly language on an Apple IIE when I was 13 years old.
It took me a couple of months to write the iPhone app. One reason that it took so long was that I had to write a custom PDF viewer from scratch. The reason that I created the app is because I have experienced the pain of signing and returning signed documents. Having to rely on multiple machines to function (printers, fax machines, or scanners) and being in proximity to those machines is a pain. The Vignature app eliminates the hassle by allowing you to sign documents electronically, 24/7.
Zosh and EasySign are similar apps. They are both used to sign and email signed documents. The Vignature app is different, however, in that it captures a real-time photographic image of the signer. This makes the signature verifiable.
Ultimately, everyone will be giving their “Vignature” instead of their signature. Technology is moving towards easy to obtain biometrics, and Vignature sits perfectly between hardware-requiring fingerprinting and intelligible touch screen signatures. I anticipate updating the Vignature app every 2 weeks to 1 month. New features will include a document archive and multiple document types.
At West Virginia University the biometrics program is part of the Lane Department of Computer Science and Electrical Engineering. Dr. Bojan Cukic is Co-Director of the Center for Identification Technology Research at WVU.
"The science of biometrics is relatively new probable just about a hundred years old. In many environments, especially in the forensics investigations, law enforcement agencies wanted to know who the person who committed the crimes were and how to find them.
we don’t have paper cards anymore in the filing systems, we have data bases and we are also able to use computers, cameras, and other types of sensors to deposit or capture human iris, appearance of the human face or just the appearance of the fingerprint and use those modalities to search through very large data bases very accurately and quickly," said Dr. Cukic.
Dr. Cukic and his colleagues at the Center for Identification Technology Research are looking toward the future of biometric identification.
"So we are analyzing how to recognize the person at night at the long distance. We are analyzing different scenarios, for example very low quality DNA sampling and DNA recognition which means if there is a very degraded sample of DNA that may have been left at the crime scene, can we at least say with some probability that this is the perpetrator of that crime, rather than being able to say with very very high probability or almost certainty, yes this is the person," Dr. Cukic said.
Dr. Cukic and Dr. Ross expect advances in the area of Identification Technology to continue accelerating at a rapid pace.
Brazilian bank and insurance group Bradesco is studying the possible expansion of the biometric system currently used in its ATMs to authenticate internet banking transactions, tech magazine Computer World reported.
The bank's ATMs use Fujitsu's PalmSecure biometric authentication application, which features a sensor that captures the vein pattern of a user's palm and compares it with preregistered data to authenticate the customer's identity.
According to Bradesco executive VP Laercio Albino Cezar, the bank is evaluating developing a device with Fujitsu to identify accountholders on the internet. "We want to create something that isn't integrated into the client computer to use separately, as happens today with the tokens," he was quoted as saying.
For internet banking, it will be necessary to develop a portable device, smaller than tokens, Cezar said, adding that technologies are well advanced, so there is no technical barrier to creating a device with such characteristics.
In Brazil, Bradesco has been a pioneer in using biometrics for customer recognition at ATMs. The PalmSecure application began testing three years ago, and today the technology is in 22,000 ATMs, out of 32,000 throughout the country.
"Our plan is to end 2012 with biometrics systems in 100% of our ATMs," said Cezar. Currently, 4.6mn of the 23.5mn bank customers are registered to use this technology.
iD1 Technology Consultants will launch TruSec And TrustPath its new solutions for Airport Security and Passenger Facilitation, during the Airport Show 2011. Both solutions leverage latest advances in Biometrics and Automated Gates to achieve highest levels of security, passenger convenience, and airport facilities optimization.
TruSec is a Biometrics based Identity Credentialing and Physical Access Control solution that uses unique Biometric identifiers of people to authorize entry-to and exit-from critical airport facilities. TruSec is flexible in providing alternative biometrics to be used for authentication. Currently, both long-range IRIS and Palm Vein innovative recognition technologies were selected by our R&D team due to their highest levels of accuracy, throughput, and convenience.
TrustPath offers Automated Border Control (or eGates) and Passenger Facilitation to operate Trusted Traveler Programs in busy airports. The solution can facilitate fast immigration and boarding of passengers, while maintaining highest levels of Security and safety.
"Both solutions demonstrate iD1's capabilities in developing and integrating leading-edge solutions for the travel industry," said Kasim Hammami, CEO of iD1.
The much-anticipated FIPS 201-2 draft was released in March. The team at the National Institute of Standards and Technology had been collecting comments on possible additions to the U.S. federal smart card standard since the first specification was released in 2005.
The new draft focuses on clearing up some confusion from the first standard, enhancing functionality and security while not adding a tremendous amount of cost to comply with the new standard, says Bill MacGregor, a computer scientist with the Computer Security Division at the agency.
“We tried to achieve new functionality with costs considered and without agencies having to buy more than they wanted to buy,” MacGregor says. “Some people say the draft is conservative but I think it’s appropriate for the current requirements and implementations. Disruptive change would not be good.”
For the most part the draft has been well received. Some, however, have expressed disappointment that other form factors for the credential, such as mobile devices, and additional applications were not addressed. The Interagency Advisory Board plans to encourage NIST to enable other form factors in the revised specification.
“HSPD-12 doesn’t specifically call for a card but rather leaves it open for other devices,” says Tim Baldridge, chair of the IAB and project manager for NASA’s Common Badging and Access Control System. Baldridge made the comments during the April IAB meeting stating that the group is going to submit comments recommending other form factors.
Last year, administrators in the City of Winter Park, Fla., realized they had a serious compliance risk in their police department. The FBI's Criminal Justice Information Services Division has regulations that call for tight access controls for records. However, many officers share workstations and, therefore share passwords.
The solution, they realized, was to deploy fingerprint scanners that would enable individual authentication.
With biometrics scanning, police officers place their finger on a digital reader during sign-on, and are immediately verified. This way, the city can prove federal compliance and, if need be, investigate data loss at a granular level.
Executives were so impressed with the protection and risk mitigation that fingerprint scanning provides they decided to roll out the technology, in this case Digital Persona's 4500 USB Fingerprint Reader, to all the city's 520 employees.
Indigo Identityware, a rapidly-growing leader in the Identity & Access Management industry, announced strong authentication electronic prescription (e-prescribe) functionality for physicians in clinical and hospital settings.
Indigo Identityware's e-Prescribe Functionality
Indigo's eSign capabilities allow physicians to electronically sign prescriptions utilizing finger biometrics or proximity cards. As a secondary form of authentication, a four digit PIN (personal identification number) can be used, similar to the process used for accessing a bank account from an ATM. Indigo, unlike other solution providers who use 'passwords' as a secondary form of authentication, uses a PIN which is easier to remember and implement. Indigo's exclusive solution design stores, manages, and changes passwords automatically.
"Indigo Identityware's advanced session management capabilities allow physicians to perform 'two factor authentication' using the touch of a finger or the tap of a card in combination with a PIN as a 'secondary' factor, fulfilling the requirements set forth by the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) for electronic prescription of controlled substances," said Tom Rheineck, CEO and President Indigo Identityware.
"As a result of the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act (HITECH), which was implemented to ensure the health, safety and well-being of consumers, medical providers are incentivized to implement electronic health record (EHR) systems that include electronic prescribing. Physicians are required to write 40% of their overall prescriptions electronically in order to qualify for meaningful use rewards. Indigo's solution allows physicians a secure and simple way to meet the HITECH specifications," said Mr. Rheineck.
Datastrip Gets GSA stamp of Approval
Datastrip’s DSV3 range of handheld biometric verification and ePassport readers have been approved for purchase by federal agencies under the General Services Administration’s FIPS 201 evaluation program.
The approvals enable the Datastrip devices to be used for identity verification under Homeland Security Presidential Directive 12 (HSPD-12).
The DSV3 product family consists of the EasyRead and the EasyVerify range of devices. The EasyRead is a mobile biometric device offering a one-step inspection procedure for securely validating Machine Readable Travel Documents (MRTDs) and verifying document holders. The EasyRead reads and inspects first- and second-generation ePassports and other documents in accordance with the International Civil Aviation Organization’s 9303 standard and extended access control specifications.
The device also reads border-crossing credentials and government-issued documents supporting US-VISIT and NEXUS Border Crossing programs.
The EasyVerify handheld multi-modal biometric reader is a mobile terminal that can acquire multiple biometrics (iris, finger, face), that can read and process a wide range of optical and smart card based credentials, ID Cards, and travel documents.
Both devices contains an x86 processor, a QWERTY keyboard, a 3.7 inch 640 x 480 pixel colour LCD display, contactless smart card reader, and a FIPS 201/NIST SP 800-76 compliant fingerprint sensor.
The EasyVerify and EasyRead’s inclusion on the GSA’s FIPS 201 approved product list certifies that the product has met the Federal Information Processing Standards (FIPS) 201 requirements. All evaluation criteria and approved products are listed at http://fips201ep.cio.gov/
VoiceTrust Holding, a global leader in voice biometrics based services announced the acquisition of VoiceCash Middle East for an undisclosed amount. The acquired entity has been renamed as VoiceTrust eServices MENA (Middle East North Africa).
"This is a strategic acquisition as it strengthens our expansion into the MENA region as well as into the fast growing financial services space of Prepaid and Mobile Payments. Voice biometrics has the potential to revolutionize customer authentication and enable financial inclusion in emerging markets. It is natural, convenient and scalable. Customers no longer need to memorize PINs and passwords, they just use their voice to have their identity verified," said Tariq Habib, Group CEO of VoiceTrust Holding.
"This is a strategic acquisition as it strengthens our expansion into the MENA region as well as into the fast growing financial services space of Prepaid and Mobile Payments. Voice biometrics has the potential to revolutionize customer authentication and enable financial inclusion in emerging markets. It is natural, convenient and scalable. Customers no longer need to memorize PINs and passwords, they just use their voice to have their identity verified," said Tariq Habib, Group CEO of VoiceTrust Holding.
Cognitec Systems announced the release of an extended version of its facial database search product FaceVACS-DBScan. The new version includes several new features for the Examiner tool, a user interface for law enforcement customers. FaceVACS-DBScan is a software package that assists customers in finding images in large photo databases by comprehensive facial image analysis.
Previous versions of the product are being used by Government and Law Enforcement customers worldwide in order to prevent ID fraud during ID document issuance or to identify suspects during a law enforcement investigation. The Examiner tool of FaceVACS-DBScan allows enhancement of low-quality images, which are typically provided as crime scene photos or videos.
This increases the matching rates for identification against an agency's mug shot repository. With the present release of the software, additional enhancement tools have been introduced.
ModiFace, the leading provider of virtual makeover technologies and applications, today announced the launch of new virtual makeover technology for iPhones, iPads, and Android phones/tablets. The new applications feature facial recognition (for automatically mapping the face), store locator, as well as a patent-pending Shade Match™ Technology for realistically showing glitter, shimmer, and shine. On Android phones and tablets, ModiFace is launching its best-selling MakeUp application with the on-device processing and ShadeMatch™ features noted above.
"This is the result of an intense two years of R&D that focused on developing the most advanced, user friendly, and realistic virtual makeover experience ever created.
Not only have we made a major upgrade to our core technology, but we also have added numerous features that redefine the traditional virtual makeover experience including the Shade Creator™, so that brands/users can add their own shades, SkinMatch™ so that the application recommends the best products for a user's skin-tone, and the instant look gallery which utilizes a user-uploaded photo as the model.
These unique features, along with our facial recognition and store-finder capability, have resulted in an application that, true to its name, is the ultimate virtual makeover tool," said Dr. Parham Aarabi, Founder and CEO of ModiFace.
Both applications are available at the iTunes and Android App Stores. They can be downloaded at the following links:
Android Market Link for MakeUp:
https://market.android.com/details?id=com.modiface.makeup
iTunes Link for Ultimate Beauty:
http://itunes.apple.com/ca/app/ultimate-beauty/id440586344
According to a report published by the RBI, technically this is possible, but the acceptance of biometrics in payment authentication has not been proved anywhere else yet
Card present transactions at point of sales (POS) and automated teller machines (ATMs) constitute the major proportion of card-based transactions in India. However, the present operating systems using magnetic strip cards (MSDs) and personal identification numbers (PIN) may be replaced in the not too distant future, due to skimming and counterfeit frauds.
According to a report of the "Working Group on Securing Card Present Transactions" of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), there is a need to put in place a series of measures to strengthen the payments infrastructure and ecosystem in the country. It says, inferences drawn from case studies clearly indicate the need to have a much stronger authentication mechanism and reiterate the need for a second factor (2FA) for card present transactions. (Skimming is the illegal copying of information from the magnetic strip of a credit or debit card.)
Download this 23 page report here:
In Pune, India Shailesh Niyogi, board director, Lokmanya Hospitals believes "The Union government's Biometrics Unique Social Identification card should also include basic medical data of an individual. This will help doctors to treat emergency cases better, without wasting any time during the crucial golden hour, especially in accidents and trauma cases" Niyogi was speaking during a panel discussion on "The Impact of IT revolution on healthcare" at the 2nd Annual Healthcare Expansion Summit India, organized in Goa on June 2 and June 3.
The panel included experts from Hinduja Healthcare, Raheja Hospital and Fortis Healthcare. "Transformation and growth of healthcare industry can happen with the support of IT. India has become a superpower in the software industry and can also become super power in medical industry and medical tourism.
In order to reach there, it is very important that we add lot of value in terms of implementation of maintaining E-medical record systems (EMR)", Niyogi said.
The Deputy Assistant Secretary for International Affairs, Mark Koumans, recently made a statement before the House Committee on Homeland Security Subcommittee on Oversight, Investigations, and Management, regarding the government’s measures to counter worldwide terrorist threats and the safe havens of terrorist groups. Koumans’ full report is republished here.
[...] Terrorists operate without regard to national boundaries. Protecting the United States and its people from terrorism is the cornerstone of homeland security, and denying terrorists' safe haven is one of the best ways to undermine their capacity to operate effectively.
As set forth in the Homeland Security Act of 2002, preventing terrorist attacks against the United States and enhancing our nation's security have been and continue to be two of DHS's most important objectives. The Department's first Quadrennial Homeland Security Review (QHSR), released on February 1, 2010, reiterates that preventing terrorist attacks in the United States is the first of five primary missions for the homeland security enterprise. DHS also integrates preventing terrorism into the four other missions of the homeland security enterprise—securing and managing our borders, enforcing and administering our customs and immigration laws, safeguarding and securing cyberspace, and ensuring resilience to disasters of all kinds.
As more and more consumers turn to e-readers and tablets for their digital media, Ricoh announced this week that it has updated its contribution to the eWriter solution, the eQuill.
The device functions as a business-class tablet, almost an electronic clipboard of sorts, packed with features that seek to eliminate the need for paper, which is an interesting development given that Ricoh’s product line is still dominated by copier and fax machines.
This is just one recent move that Ricoh has made towards reducing its carbon footprint and helping its customers drastically reduce their reliance on paper in an effort to save money. It’s also a sign that Ricoh is well-equipped to adapt its business model to meet the need for a paperless workflow, despite its healthy beginnings in the paper-based industry.
The eQuill, which weighs right around one pound and sustains an incredible battery life of around 20 hours during normal use, receives data via multisource input, namely through the stylus, camera, voice recording, or soft keyboard.
As for quality, Ricoh feels that the near ten-inch e-ink screen has almost the same readability as print paper. One standard feature which will impress even the most die-hard ballpoint pen fan is the ability to write directly into pre-populated forms that the user sends to the device using eWriter Workflow Services, allowing the incorporation of information through the various inputs.
The average user today holds approximately 30 accounts that are accessed with a keyed-in password or PIN number. It is necessary - although it is widely known that establishing a user's identity through username/password is not strong enough.
The AuthenWare solution is a second-factor biometric authentication technology that is very accurate and completely transparent to the end-user. AuthenWare is a multi-factor authentication system that uniquely identifies the rightful owner of the username/password credentials being supplied, by combining keystroke dynamics and heuristics to make user authentication and validation easy, cost-effective and reliable.
AuthenWare incorporates a breakthrough, multi-dimensional approach to validating identity. Using a series of security algorithms that record and measure a person's unique keyboard typing patterns, as well as other behavioral and environmental heuristics, the product creates a personal security pattern that is as unique as the person's DNA.
Mitek Systems, a San Diego maker of mobile banking applications, said it has received four new patents recently related to its Mobile Deposit technology. Mobile Deposit allows smart phone users to snap a picture of the check with the phone's camera. The application automatically processes the picture and sends it to the bank for deposit.
Mitek, which for years made signature recognition and other technology used by banks in processing checks in branches, has been adapting its technology in recent years to focus on mobile banking. The patents center on intellectual property for detecting and capturing key data needed from paper checks and other documents.
The new patents add texture to the original patented process and broaden Mitek’s protection for Mobile Deposit, which has become the “Gold Standard” in enabling check
deposits via camera-equipped smartphones and other mobile devices. To “Point, Shoot
and Deposit™” with Mitek, users simply position their paper checks within the
viewfinders of smartphones such as iPhone, BlackBerry and Google Android devices.
Mobile Deposit is now being deployed by dozens of banks – including five of the top 10
retail banks in the United States -- credit unions, brokerages and cash-management
organizations.
DeBello noted a new market research report by Javelin Strategy & Research that found
one in every four consumers and one in every two mobile-banking customers prefer to
deposit checks using their smartphones to avoid visiting bank branches or ATMs.
Techno Brain, a leading IT solutions and training company in Africa, announced that it has partnered with Datastrip Limited, a UK based leading provider of mobile biometric identity solutions. Techno Brain will use Datastrip's handheld device, EasyVerify to provide advanced Identity Management and Biometric Security Solutions. Nandan, Techno Brain's Identity Management, This handheld device will help Techno Brain to address all our customers' requirements and become strong and reliable provider of unique and secured identity management solutions in the market.
SecuRegister, Techno Brain's multi-modal biometric system, enables management of data and associated identity functions in a scalable, reliable & secure manner. From mission-critical nationally & internationally scaled systems to small pilots. SecuRegister is built on Automatic Fingerprint Identification (AFIS)/IRIS Identification technology that can be applied in various areas like passport registration & issuance, micro finance, mobile banking, national ID, healthcare, driving license, jail management, etc.
The International Air Transport Association (I.A.T.A.) is planning to use biometric sensors, non-invasive scanners to return dignity to future airport checkpoints: "Three security lanes will have technology to check passengers according to risk. Each traveler will undergo an iris scan to determine their identity. A computer will then crosscheck each persons2 travel history, and determine their relative risk based on a complex intelligence algorithm."
The system will consider how potential a threat each passenger is. "Today's checkpoint was designed four decades ago to stop hijackers carrying metal weapons," said Giovanni Bisignani, I.A.T.A.'s Director General and C.E.O.
"Since then, we have grafted on more complex procedures to meet emerging threats. We are more secure, but it is time to rethink everything. We need a process that responds to today's threat. It must amalgamate intelligence based on passenger information and new technology. That means moving from a system that looks for bad objects, to one that can find bad people."
In an attempt to mitigate crime and terror, the global installed base of more than 45 million CCTV surveillance systems has been experiencing dramatic growth throughout the last decade.
The current decade will be marked by the fusion of CCTV with Biometrics, and human behavioral signatures, which will create a new multibillion premium security market of CCTV-Based Remote Biometric & Behavioral Suspect Detection.
This family of technologies results from the need to remove the bottlenecks of current CCTV and people screening systems, the inability to provide reliable real-time alarm when suspects are viewed by the CCTV camera and the staggering cost of security officers, required to operate 24/7 CCTV workstations. This fusion of technologies brings significant growth opportunities to CCTV, biometric and IT systems manufacturers, security systems integrators and entrepreneurs.
This new market (including systems sales, upgrades and post warranty service) is forecasted to reach $3.2 billion by 2016, growing at a CAGR of 33%.
HSRC’s latest report, CCTV Based Remote Biometric & Behavioral Suspect Detection: Technologies & Global Markets – 2011-2016, presents in 161 pages with 104 tables and figures detailing analysis and the forecasting of 96 sub-markets. The report presents current and pipeline technologies, products, 78 vendors, SWOT and competitive analysis of the market.
The US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) will donate an automated fingerprint identification system (AFIS) machine to the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) in order to bolster information sharing in tracking down criminals as well as fighting global terrorism between the two law enforcement agencies, according to NBI Director Magtanggol Gatdula.
“I hope we could acquire it this year. There is a promise from our friends in the FBI,” Gatdula said, admitting that the NBI could not afford to buy the AFIS machine, the largest biometric database in the world. While he does not know the exact cost of the AFIS machine, Gatdula said that a similar system being used by the Social Security System (SSS) costs about P1 billion.
“For every applicant, we will get their pictures and biometrics, or fingerprints. We are still working on this since this is part of our information sharing. We have an informal networking already,” he said. AFIS includes not only fingerprints, but criminal histories, mug shots, scars and tattoo photos, physical characteristic like height, weight, hair and eye color and aliases.
Facebook is Big News all of a sudden over their new system for using facial recognition software to automate the process of “tagging” user uploaded photos.
What Facebook is revealing is one of the biggest cons in the history of the internet. Facebook is building the most advanced system for facial recognition in existence.
Facebook's major breakthrough is that they are using the personal data (uploaded photos and existing name tags) and labor of their users to provide the "seed data" for this project. They plan to continue to exploit this free labor pool as they move into the second phase of the project, where they have their computers make guesses, and have their users verify and correct them. According to numerous citations Facebook users “tag” around 100 million photos per day.
Facebook controls a free labor force of 500 million people and probably have an accumulated database that includes photographs of 90% of the population in most “advanced” countries, and maybe 60-70% of the population world wide. (very rough estimates). Welcome to the digital plantation. It's a brave new world.
Westminster Group PLC said it has secured distribution rights for OmniPerception facial recognition products in African and Middle East territories through its subsidiary Westminster International.
OmniPerception's facial recognition solutions include CheckPoint access control, Colossus facial search engine and BPac mobile biometric capture device among others. CheckPoint facial biometric access control is suited to organizations and businesses requiring enhanced security, guaranteeing verified identity to improve security to all businesses.
The Colossus facial search engine can process a database of 8 million faces in one second and recognizes facial images from a wide range of visual sources including those from camera, CCTV, E-Fit and mobile phone or portable devices. BPac mobile biometric capture devices can acquire, store and process facial, fingerprint and iris biometric data. The product comes in a rugged portable personal computer.
Designed with input from the military, it can be used for both enrolment and verification applications, where the identity of subjects needs to be checked and verified.
Fujitsu Laboratories Ltd. today announced the development of what it calls “the world's first biometric authentication technology that combines data on palm vein patterns with fingerprint data from three fingers.”
By employing both palm vein pattern and fingerprint data, the technology enables the rapid identification of a given individual out of data from a million people, processing the match within two seconds. This technology makes it possible to construct biometric authentication systems that do not require ID cards and that can be custom-made to fit different sized groups, from small-scale room access control to large-scale social platform systems.
In addition, the technology can be deployed by adding palm vein authentication to the fingerprint authentication systems already in extensive use.
Gatdula said the AFIS is in line with the bureau’s improvement of process and procedures, which include the occasional issuance of NBI clearances. He said they have 12 million people applying for NBI clearance in a year.
“This (NBI clearance) is the frontline service of the agency. So we like to speed up, lessen the queuing and make it high-tech, like using the biometrics for each applicant,” he said, emphasizing that the biometrics is in preparation for the use of AFIS machines.
Last Thursday marked the final approval of the biometric database regulations and the biometric database order in Israel; the regulations and order were approved by a special Knesset panel. According to the biometric law, any citizen or resident that joins the database will have to provide the ministry of interior his fingerprints and a photograph of his face which will be stored in a central database which may be accessible to the ministry of interior, the police and other security services.
Following public protest (heard mostly on the internet) it was decided that the database shall commence with a pilot program which will take no longer than four years. During this term, which commences this November, the necessity of the database will be evaluated (however, recent statements show that the pilot is not actually a pilot). Once the pilot program ends, every citizen who refuses biometric identification is subject to a prison term of up to a year.
The only way to stop the forming of the database is to refuse to provide the government with fingerprint during the pilot period.
On the question of why the biometric database is dangerous to every Israeli there are numerous answers which were already raised by experts and discussed over and over again. Briefly, the stated purpose of the database is to prevent forgery of identity cards, and forged identities. However, in order to prevent identity theft and ID forgery there is no actual need for a biometric database. Several other methods for the protection of citizen’s identity already exist, including electronic identification cards.
As we learned from a recently leaked document, the only reason that a biometric database is required was to pass information to the police about the citizens of Israel. This is the reason the police rejected a safer mean of storing biometric information detailed by Prof. Adi Shamir, claiming that it won’t be able to use such database. The same police that uses violence on protesters from the right and left, who crush political dissent by Arabs and social activists, now asks for unprecedented authority over Israeli citizens.
BIO-key International, Inc. announced the results of an opt-in survey that was linked to a recent Open Letter to Shareholders, Customers & Industry Leaders on the State of Security and Biometrics; discussing the recent outbreak of security breaches occurring at highly notable companies.
"Although we anticipated securing the activity, which takes place on the Internet, would present challenges, none of us ever imagined that the security systems for best in class companies would be affected. Today, we're seeing just how vulnerable everyone is. The internet is extremely critical to business and government; therefore identifying a secure solution is a priority. Experience has proven that when a biometric element is incorporated, security improves and threats decrease," stated Thomas Bush III, former Assistant Director, FBI and Strategic Advisor to BIO-key.
SURVEY RESULTS
44% of the participants stated they had a lack of confidence in their current security system.
36% of the participants stated they are reviewing their security process within 6 months.
79% use passwords & 24% use pins
94% of the participants stated that their company's security system would be better if it included finger biometrics.
45% fear internal threats to security – 36% external
The time has come for every commercial and government enterprise to recognize that traditional methods of security are no longer a deterrent to hackers and cyber thieves. Recent security breaches have proven that tokens are far too vulnerable, especially in cases where the data or information is mission critical and passwords, no matter how sophisticated, are easily compromised.
CardLogix and Datastrip announced that they have formed a partnership for mobile and secure identity management. The companies are teaming to deliver handheld, mobile fingerprint identity verification for National ID, Voting, Law Enforcement, and Airport Security. The combination of CardLogix smart cards and Datastrip fingerprint biometric capture identifies people with completely unique and irrefutable data that cannot be altered or duplicated.
The partnership addresses the urgent need for frontline security and Identity Management, especially in environments that are dynamic, mobile, and often remote. Solutions feature the CardLogix M.O.S.T.®, or Credentsys® smart card, or the CardLogix ePassport, which powerfully encrypt and secure data. When inserted into a Datastrip reader, like the popular handheld Easy Verify" model, a CardLogix software program retrieves fingerprints that accompany the identity profile of the cardholder.
These are compared to the cardholder to verify identity. The handheld Datacard Biometric Terminal is rugged and battery powered and is perfect for use anywhere that a secure checkpoint is required, such as in ICAO-specified environments.
The Army is ready to begin testing smartphones and tablets running Apple's iOS operating system and also Google's Android OS next week to see if the devices and apps fit the rigid military standards during real-life combat situations in war. If testing is successful, a $400-$700 smartphone could potentially replace more expensive and bulkier equipment, be easier to manage and update, and could help troops out in various situations. Having already invested $4.2 million in research smartphone and apps, the military can potentially influence and help shape the direction of phones, both in the consumer and enterprise space. For instance, the Wall Street Journal is reporting that the army is researching biometrics security that could potentially be used to lock up and secure phones used by consumers and enterprise users. For war purposes, biometrics security would be used to identify enemies and suspected insurgents, but for consumers the technology can identify a Smartphone owner, much like how Motorola is beginning to implement it through the fingerprint scanner on the Atrix 4G.
Research on gait biometrics at the University of Southampton has passed another landmark with the first public demonstration of the technology’s ability to withstand deliberate spooking. In a programme shown in the Discovery Channel’s 'Planet Earth' series, Professor Mark Nixon of ECS-Electronics and Computer Science explained how his research on gait – the way we walk – has progressed over the years. The programme was filmed in the ECS Biometrics Tunnel – the only one of its kind in the world. The technology based in the Tunnel combines and processes data from 12 cameras to produce an individual 'signature' of a person’s walk that is unique and recognizable with over 90 per cent accuracy.
In the first public test of the system, Professor Nixon and two of his PhD students, John Bustard and Darko Matovski, tried to fool the software by swapping clothes, wearing hats and scarves, and even a motorcycle helmet.
The technology stood up to all these tests and Professor Nixon explained how this robustness has been able to help the UK police and security services. It may even be able to detect padding underneath clothing – for example, the changed body profile and walk of a suicide bomber.
“People are unique by quite a variety of different measures,” said Professor Nixon, “and that rich diversity is fascinating.”
Watch the Discovery Channel video.
Vishv Bandhu Gupta says the UID project could create more errors than it can correct
The concept of “a ubiquitous magic plastic” that bring out the unique in a living person has caught the fascination of most of us. An unpopular government sees in it the ability of cutting a long red tape short to correctly identify the genuine citizens in need. The agonised cops of India see in it a great ally to apprehend the much-wanted terrorists, whose biometric data could now be verified with existing records, as and when these come into existence, before he commits another heinous crime.
These expectations are fair. But, the fumes of fire cooking such recipes are rising from unforeseen quarters, which must raise serious concerns in India. Major fires, ironically, are caused by the maniac rush of more reliable and sophisticated software in the market to collect the biometric data of a person, making earlier biometric-reading software and newly-bought hardware obsolete. Further, other factors like a person ageing and the data collected under different weather condition influence the result within the same software, inducing false errors. In South Korea, where the municipal authorities recently introduced “a thumb impression biometric software”, chipped on the closing handle of cars to park and drive away the car to ensure automatic security, raised false “error alarm” in three per cent of the cases. It forced the authorities to shut down the project temporarily.
None of these technologies are being substantially tested for trial in India by the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI). The UIDAI, very inexplicably, does not even comment on such doubts, which have surfaced in the technologically advanced countries; neither does it tell us how it intends to counter such errors? It has not started the testing of its software for a real run on any of the unique IDs.
DecisionOne and IT infrastructure management services provider, today announced it is offering a new solution designed to enhance existing physical security systems within and surrounding the data center. In partnership with engineering design firm Digitus Biometrics, DecisionOne now provides centrally managed biometric access control systems to protect data centers, cages and individual racks.
As a result, clients now have available to them a real-time system to monitor access to individual server, storage and network devices, and provide immediate identifications of any physical security breaches. The system also provides a physical access audit trail for compliance reporting. The result is a virtually impregnable physical security screen around clients’ IT assets to prevent any physical access loss of private information.
Watch the product demonstration here:
AuthenWare®, today announced a new contract with the Greater Montréal Real Estate Board (GMREB), operator of the second largest Multi Listing Service in Canada (MLS). The agreement, which includes licenses for up to 20,000 realtors and staff, is designed to help authenticate and protect their identity when accessing property information on the Multiple Listing Services, as well as limit invalid password sharing.
The AuthenWare technology incorporates keystroke dynamics, a form of behavioral biometrics, to recognize valid users and to stop identity theft, web fraud and other system intrusions.
"We live in a digital world where users access systems and applications from multiple devices anywhere. On the Enterprise side when we try to raise security, often times we impact usability. We evaluated several security vendors and selected AuthenWare for its friction-less adoption, high security, and multi-device recognition capabilities" said Éric Charbonneau CEO of the Greater Montréal Real Estate Board.
Biometric Signature ID, Inc. (BSI) announced today that the patented BioSig-ID™ signature gesture biometric technology for identity authentication and the uSignOnline™ electronic signature application were selected by the online distance education consortium, EduKan, for use this Fall 2011 to verify student identity online. It is the goal to not only be in compliance with regulations regarding authentication of their online student population but to manage costs to keep fees down to students. BSI is the only software company with this patented technology that exceeds NIST requirements in the $12.6B Identity and Access Management (IAM) authentication market.
“We wanted to find a solution that was transparent to our students while respecting their privacy, be available anytime, be cost-effective and maintain the highest level of student integrity.” Said Dr. Mark Sarver, CEO of EduKan. “BSI’s solution was tested in a pilot and proven to work for the faculty, administration and from the student’s perspective, making it a win-win.”
Nuance Communications, the leader of speech and customer interaction solutions announced that its industry leading voice recognition technologies, Nuance Recognizer and Nuance Verifier power SafeRise from FST21, a leading provider of intelligent controlled access and automation solutions and services. SafeRise was honored as the Best New Product of the Year Award at the 2011 Security Industry Association New Product Showcase (NPS) awards ceremony at the International Security Conference (ISC) West.
SafeRise is an identity management solution that uses next-generation biometrics technology, to provide the highest level of security to access buildings, for both authorized persons, such as employees or building residents, as well as visitors. The system is unique in that it uses no keys, no security card and no codes. Instead, the faces and voices of authorized personnel work like a building key.
“SafeRise revolutionizes the way people enter buildings by providing easy, automated and convenient access for residents and guests, while maintaining the highest level of preventive security,” saidMajor General (Res.) Aharon Zeevi Farkash , chairman and chief executive officer, FST21 Ltd .
“Voice recognition is a core component of SafeRise and through Nuance we are able to offer industry leading speech solutions that provide the highest form of security to our customers.”
DVICE reports that Eric Schmidt, who served as Google's CEO from 2001 until about two months ago, is speaking candidly about what decisions the company makes that affect everybody. One big one: facial recognition, Schmidt said, is something he thinks can be used in a "very bad way as well as a very good way," but the bad was too much to ignore.
In fact, facial recognition is the only feature to Schmidt's mind that the company started and stopped: "We actually built that technology and we withheld it. As far as I know it's the only technology Google built and after looking at it we decided to stop." Google is often seen as the "do no evil" company, one that weighs the moral impact of the technology it produces.
At the same time, the company promotes an open playground, one that feels like the Wild West compared to Apple's platform, which is full of safety scissors and rounded corners.
Every time an individual sees a known person, the brain may rapidly and effortlessly recognize that person by his or her face. Over the years, it has been assumed that certain brain areas seemingly mediate facial recognition.
Well, a new study from the Carnegie Mellon University suggests that an entire network of cortical areas work together to identify faces.
At the time of the study, participants were shown images of faces while in a MRI scanner. They had to recognize different facial identities with varying facial expressions. With the assistance of dynamic multivariate mapping, scientists were able to analyze the fMRI data and found a network of fusiform. They also noted anterior temporal regions that respond with distinct patterns to different identities. Apart from that, it was observed that the information is supposedly distributed in an even manner among the anterior regions.
OTTAWA - Canada's front-line border officers back the idea of a perimeter security arrangement with the United States, with a few caveats.
The Customs and Immigration Union wants more intensive screening of travellers, including a biometric face-recognition tool to pinpoint security threats and wanted criminals. And it's pushing for an end to closures and reduced hours at land-border crossings.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper and U.S. President Barack Obama have signed an agreement that could lead to a formal North American security perimeter.
The union's submission, part of a federal consultation on the initiative, was obtained by The Canadian Press under the Access to Information Act. Union president Ron Moran was unavailable Tuesday.
The perimeter arrangement is aimed at expanding joint operations on security while allowing for smoother flow of goods and people across the Canada-U.S. border. The federal government says an ambitious joint-action plan should be ready this summer.
Critics contend a border deal would endanger Canadian sovereignty and federal control of personal information.
The Customs and Immigration Union, however, sees the continental talks as a prime opportunity to implement more stringent screening at the border through new technologies.
Only in Los Angeles would movie business veterans join together to develop a futuristic stun glove/armshield to fight crime.
The first demo unit of ArmStar’s BodyGuard 9XI-HD01, a prototype combining a non-lethal taser, LED flashlight and laser-guided video camera, is slated to be released to the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department later this year for testing and evaluation, reported Popular Science.
It debuted in May at the U.S. Justice Department’s Mock Prison Riot, an annual training and technology-assessment event held at a decommissioned penitentiary in West Virginia.
The customizable glove, designed to deter and diffuse violent situations, also has enough room for officers to add Global Positioning System equipment, time and date stamping, a smart phone, biometrics or other technology as needed.
Officers would use the laser pointer on suspects to let them know their actions are being video recorded so they might be more likely to cooperate. The stunner is loud and issues a visible arc of electricity, another deterrent that could be used against the suspect as a final option.
David Brown, a cameraman, editor and producer, got the idea for the device in 2004 after hearing about a recent and nearby mountain lion attack that killed one cyclist and maimed another, according to ArmStar.He believed an individual under attack would more instinctively use a wearable device versus a knife or another handheld weapon, which could be dropped. From there, he realized that the glove was a good fit for the police, corrections departments and the military. Actor Kevin Costner funded development of the glove.
By deploying the first proof of concept for the UID project, 4G Identity Solutions became the first company to introduce the iris biometric technology in India
It took 39-year-old Sreeni Tripuraneni, a well-trained vascular surgeon in the UK, just over two years to completely study the efficacy of the iris technology (the iris is the coloured part of the eye surrounding the pupil), the algorithms for which were patented by John Daugman, professor at the University of Cambridge, back in 1994.
Though Tripuraneni embraced the iris biometric technology for patient recognition in the UK a decade ago (in 2001), he now takes pride in the fact that his company – 4G Identity Solutions – is the first to have introduced it closer home by deploying the first proof of concept for the unique identification (UID) project in March 2010.
“Post the completion of my medical informatics course at the University of Bath, I started working on electronic patient records and how to use biometrics to identify a patient brought to an emergency room in a state of shock. My task was Herculean – getting to know the patient, his past medical history and blood group, and start quick treatment in the Golden Hour (the first hour of treatment, in medical terminology). In 2001 I found that iris was one of the most unique biometrics technologies, and since then I have been working on it,” recalls Tripuraneni.
iD1 launches world's first contactless palm vein based gates for airport security and facilitation, a solution that is deployed on TruSec, an enterprise grade identity management solution. The product integrates the ultra secure palm vein recognition technology with access control and creating a contactless, secure identification.
TruSec is a biometrics based identity credentialing, physical access control and time and attendance solution that uses unique palm vein biometric identifiers of people to authorize entry-to and exit-from critical airport facilities. The biometric product was selected for its accuracy, throughput, and convenience.
The PalmSecure technology is hygienic, contactless and with high accuracy for each palm vein template, the solution is highly secure, and extremely easy to use.
"PalmSecure Gates demonstrate iD1's capabilities in developing and integrating leading-edge solutions for the travel & security industry," said Kasim Hammami, CEO of iD1.
Fujitsu Laboratories announced it has developed a biometric technology capable of utilizing both palm vein patterns and fingerprint patterns of three fingers simultaneously. Additionally, the organization is hyping the system's capabilities of authenticating an individual within two seconds of a scan and can be utilized as a brand new system or by upgrading existent fingerprint systems with palm vein collection hardware.
One way in could be used is in situations where matching one out of a pool of people in the millions is necessary. This technology, which capitalizes on the additional accuracy of multi-modal biometrics, diminishes the inconvenience that is usually involved with multiple separate scans as this system is capable of pulling in both fingerprint and palm vein in one scan.
Daon, a global provider of identity assurance software and services, announced that Daon Trusted Identity Services (DTIS) has been awarded a contract with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to provide fingerprinting and FBI background checking services for the estimated 1 million people that prepare and/or assist in the preparation of federal tax returns.
The multi-year contract will provide tax preparers with a cost-effective and convenient way to prove that they meet the ethical standards of conduct set forth by the IRS. Working in conjunction with The UPS Store®, DTIS will designate a minimum of 450 The UPS Store locations throughout the U.S. within the next six months to collect fingerprints. Additional international collection locations will be established as well.
“Daon is extremely proud to be participating in such an important initiative,” said Daon CEO Tom Grissen. “Our strategic relationship with The UPS Store provides us with an extensive capability that extends our ability to collect and process fingerprint and biographic data, enabling us to address the needs of the IRS Return Preparer community nationwide.”
“Customer convenience, reliable service and trust are the hallmarks of The UPS Store brand,” said Stuart Mathis, President of Mail Boxes Etc., Inc., franchisor of The UPS Store. “We look forward to bringing these qualities and more to this important IRS initiative.”
In a conscious effort to rid its membership of impostors and ensure professionalism, the leadership of the umbrella body of clearing agents in the country, Association of Nigerian Licensed Customs Agents (ANLCA) has concluded plans to issue biometric identity cards to its members.
This is coming on heels of many persons, who are not the association’s bonafide members claiming to be so at the nation’s seaports, airports and international borders.
National President of ANLCA, Prince Olayiwola Shittu, dropped the hint in Lagos during a joint proposal by Secure ID Card Solution and Skye Bank Plc for a biometric ID card project for members of ANLCA.
Explaining the function of what they called general multipurpose card, Business Development Manager, Secure ID Card Solution, Mr. Olutayo Oni, said that the chip-enabled card will serve as identity card, automated teller machine (ATM) card, voters card, with features to accommodate the biodata /biometrics/thumb and finger prints and photographs of members.
The Skye Bank Plc team, led by Mr. Okwara Ukaike, explained that the bank is involved in the creation of a platform for seamless transaction with the ID card at point of sale (POS), ATMs and on the web.
Soon, people entering Canada from certain countries will have to submit to a fingerprint scan, in an effort to reduce immigration fraud.
Canada appears to be heading for another diplomatic dust-up with India.
As part of an update of Canada’s immigration safeguards, the federal government is planning to begin demanding that Indian citizens applying to travel to Canada provide their fingerprints, a requirement that visitors from other countries, such as Mexico and China, are not going to face immediately.
Canada has been eager for several years to introduce biometrics to its border controls. The technology has already been employed for years by other Western countries to battle immigration fraud.
Currently, Canadian border agents rely on photo identification to decide if the person standing in front of them matches their passport.
Why do you want to use FR for Orangutan’s?
1. To recognize them more easily after they are put back in nature.
2. To know what urangutan is where in a big monkeypark.
Yosuf had tested four software packages and soon found out that the way those programs work are much better at recognizing people (more than 90% accuracy scanning public in a football stadium) than orangutans of which they were only able to recognize 3-5 out of 761! The problem is that the eyes of orangutans do not have the white in the eye, the contrast needed by the program to identify the location of the eyes from where the rest of the points in the face are then mapped.
I suggested to Logica that they start with looking at the lighter part of the head and the rounded form of the skull in combination with the better lighted part of the protruding mouth and based upon those two contrast rich regions let the software look for the correct position of the eyes. Then to look at the angle between the eyes and the nostrils, which I found to be very consistent and different between orangutans.
Ideally one should then have the orangutan looking straight into the camera. But when we take a flash picture we can locate the reflecting pupils better and at the same time locate the angle under which the picture was taken so we can mathematically correct the angle between the eyes and nostrils to represent the straight looking position.
You don’t have to be at the mercy of your bank’s business hours if you want to access your locker at the bank branch, at least not if you are an IDBI Bank Ltd’s customer.
IDBI Bank launched its 24X7 hours locker facility with biometric (fingerprint) access on Monday at its Cuffe Parade branch in Mumbai. Addressing the press at the inaugural function of the facility, IDBI Bank’s chairman and managing director R.M. Malla said, “We are the first bank in the world to have a 24X7 locker facility with biometric access. In the future we will also add iris scanning to this facility.”
However, IDBI Bank is not the first to offer its customers a 24X7 locker facility as such. Standard Chartered Bank has a branch in Breach Candy, Mumbai, which is open round the clock and, therefore, the locker facility is also available 24X7.
What’s the benefit
Since it’s a 24X7 facility, you can walk in any time and get access to the contents of your locker, barring three public holidays—26 January, 15 August and 2 October.
Biometric access works as an additional layer of security. The bank also provides a special dressing room with arrangement for refreshments round the clock.
ValidSoft (www.validsoft.com) CEO Patrick Carroll has announced a range of new activities and cited several competitive advantages for ValidSoft during a recent conference call for shareholders of its parent company, Elephant Talk Communications, Inc. (www.elephanttalk.com).
Elephant Talk is an international provider of business software and services to the telecommunications and financial services industries.
"At a time when the news is full of reports that consumers, banks, telecoms, and governments are increasingly concerned about privacy and transaction security, ValidSoft is well positioned to deliver strong privacy and security solutions, backed by the stringent European Privacy Seal," Carroll said.
Carroll announced that ValidSoft, a global supplier of fraud detection, fraud prevention, authentication and transaction verification solutions, is working with a European governmental agency to improve the unemployment benefits systems through recipient Self-Certification. This project is using ValidSoft's unique four-factor authentication model that uses voice biometrics, with an automated dialer to authenticate the identity of each individual. The self-certification approach generates significant cost savings and efficiencies to the government agency and also helps identify potential fraud in the system.
ValidSoft's anonymous Proximity Correlation Logic™ (PCL) is used to verify that the benefit recipient is not outside the jurisdiction required to qualify for receipt of payment, Carroll noted.
The Pinal County Sheriff’s Office announced the acquisition of four iris biometric identification scanners that identify convicts by the unique textures and patterns on their irises on May 5, 2011
The technology will be used to enroll and positively identify every inmate at the at 1500-bed Pinal County Jail. It will also be used to register, track and monitor more than 700 convicted sex offenders in Pinal County.
The scanners, manufactured by Massachusetts-based B12 Technologies, capture the hundreds of unique and varied tears and patterns on the iris and store the scans in a database.
Sean Mullin, President and CEO of B12 Technologies, was on-hand to demonstrate the scanners, which he said works essentially like a high-speed specialized digital camera. “It takes shots at around 30 frames per second and analyzes the photos for contrast and patterns,” he said. “It will compare the findings in the local and national database and come back with results in about five to seven seconds.”
Two County inmates volunteered to demonstrate the ID technology. Leaning into the eye scanner, the men’s eyes were photographed and the images displayed on a nearby computer without contact to the men’s faces. Within seconds, their mug shot and information appeared in the County database program on the computer screen.
Morpho (Safran group) today announced the first deployment of MorphoBIS, its next generation biometric identification system, in Canada to both the Calgary Police Service and the Edmonton Police Service. This Automated Fingerprint Identification System (AFIS) is an innovative solution for investigation, identification and verification in law enforcement applications.
The Calgary and Edmonton Police Services realized that a new biometric solution was required to meet the demand for rapid paperless responses, real-time identification, and biometric data exchanges. After thorough competitive evaluation, including accuracy testing and cost of ownership comparisons, Morpho’s solution was selected.
Achieved shortly after the merger of Morpho and Printrak*, MorphoBIS is the leading edge of AFIS technology incorporating the best of their two technologies. MorphoBIS enables real-time identification of suspects and criminals. With its fused algorithms, workflows and features, this crime-solving tool fully integrates fingerprints and palm prints. Its intuitive and customizable workspace, robust architecture and large database meet the specific needs of criminal justice agencies. The results are unrivalled accuracy and enhanced productivity as more crimes are solved more quickly.
“During the rigorous benchmark, we were impressed with the MorphoBIS solution and are very happy to be partnering with them”, stated Superintendent Ken Marchant, Calgary Police Service. “Morpho has equipped us with the most advanced biometrics technology available today.”
Data verification is at the core of product upgrade efforts among China makers of access control and time attendance recorders. RFID continues to be the mainstream technology of choice, but biometrics systems are increasingly adopted, particularly in the T/A recorder segment.
RFID is expected to dominate the entire access control line because of its capability to read cards and transponders regardless of distance or position. Selections include ID and IC cards carrying EM, Mifare and other compatible solutions and running on 125kHz or 13.56MHz frequency. Suppliers also offer products that work with both card types.
For tighter security and wider interoperability, some manufacturers are introducing CPU cards that conform to ISO 14443-A/B standards. These are used in car park management and POS systems, in addition to access control and T/A recording.
In the biometrics arena, fingerprint recognition is the leading technology, especially in the T/A recorder sector. Ninety percent of releases in this category adopt the platform. Even with the emergence of other biometric types, suppliers expect systems based on this setup to remain popular in the next three to five years.
Several makers are undertaking R&D on hybrid devices that adopt RFID and biometrics verification methods. Most China companies accept requests for customized devices that combine nonbiometric and biometric modules. They use industrial designs that allow for any component to be added or removed easily and reworked within at least 14 days.
The T9 model from ZKS Technology Inc. supports fingerprint recognition and RFID verification. It has a 3.5in color TFT LCD with 320x240-pixel resolution and a 1.3MP camera.
Well (Yantai) Data System Co. Ltd’s model, the S768, uses a fingerprint module and an RFID card. It adopts an 8in color LCD screen and a 1.3MP camera, and has 640x480-pixel resolution.
You can’t be too careful nowadays. The adage is particularly true when it comes to data storage. Most enterprise administrators and all enterprise risk executives will tell you that what keeps them up at night, aside from their network going down or being hacked, is an employee losing a portable hard drive, such as that on a laptop PC or removable storage device.
From a thief’s point of view, it makes a lot of sense to go after these. It’s a lot easier to steal a small, portable device like an external hard drive than it is to hack into a computer, let alone a network. And with the advent of WikiLeaks, the real goal of the perpetrators may not always be financial gains, but rather a chance to expose a secret or two to the world.
It was reported that when the Navy SEAL team invaded Osama bin Laden’s compound in May, they seized dozens of portable storage devices containing gigabytes of information. For the sake of national security and the sanity of the men and women who are combing through that data, let’s hope they don’t encounter a LaCie Rugged Safe.
Download the technical specs here:
As part of the update to FIPS 201, NIST has released a public comment draft of NIST Special Publication 800-76-2, Biometric Data Specification for Personal Identity Verification.
The draft amends the 2007 specification SP 800-76-1 to include iris recognition and on-card fingerprint comparison, and to extend and refine the biometric sensor and performance specifications . Electronic comments on SP 800-76-2 should be drafted using this template and sent to: piv_comments@nist.gov
Comments must be received by June 6, 2011.
FaceKey Corporation (OTCBB: FAKC.PK) announced today that it will exhibit June 3, 2011 at Data Optics Cable, Inc.'s 2011 Customer Appreciation Trade Show, Casino Night. FaceKey will exhibit it's EntryGuard product line which utilizes face recognition and fingerprint recognition to identify authorized users.
FaceKey's EntryGuard product line of biometric security products consists of access control, time and attendance and muster systems.
The 2011 Casino Night, attendance by invitation only, provides the perfect setting for FaceKey to show San Antonio customers the latest innovations in biometrics and how our products can help them operate more efficiently and cut costs.
Riding the waves of ‘old’ Internet I came upon this comprehensive study. Almost 5 years old, but still without diminished importance.
Read this 43 page report here:
Strengthening its position as a global leader of national ID and ePassport security, Entrust, Inc. will provide proven, PKI-based national ID technology to the United Arab Emirates. The Emirates Identity Authority is leading a citizen-centric initiative to provide smart national ID cards for citizens and expatriates that will help enhance the stability and safety of the people and government of the UAE.
The program, led by Emirates Identity Authority Director General Dr. Ali Mohamed Al Khouri, is adopting advanced PKI technology to position the UAE ID program with the most advanced in the world. By employing the latest visual and biometric security features and embedded PKI technology, the ID cards will validate the identity of each individual and provide strong authentication to applications. Entrust, the global leader in PKI technology, was the natural choice to establish trust architecture based on international standards.
"We selected Entrust because of its international recognition and proven reputation as the most trusted identity provider in the marketplace," said Dr. Ali Mohamed Al Khouri. "This will now allow us to build a trusted backbone for the integration of the national ID program with other eGovernment services."
Ceelox, Inc. announced today that their Ceelox ID 7 PC Edition which operates on computers running Windows 7 has earned the "Compatible with Windows 7" logo for the new operating system. This logo indicates that Microsoft Corp. has deemed the product compatible with Windows 7.
Ceelox has redesigned their authentication approach to take advantage of the capability of Windows 7. As recognized by Microsoft, (1) biometrics is an increasingly popular technology that helps provide convenient access to systems, services, and resources. Biometrics relies on measuring an unchanging physical characteristic of a person to uniquely identify that person.
Fingerprints are one of the most frequently used biometric characteristics, with millions of fingerprint biometric devices that are embedded in personal computers and peripherals.
Ceelox ID PC Edition controls local access to a user's computer and provides secure login sessions for programs such as Microsoft Outlook and other applications requiring traditional user name and password. The authentication of a user's biometric live swipe matched locally on the computer grants access only to the registered users. This offers increased security and restricts access to a user's applications and data on their personal computer.
Ford Motor Co. and Medtronic Inc. have teamed up in the US in an unusual but innovative partnership to come up with an in-car blood sugar level monitor for diabetic drivers. A prototype of the device was unveiled yesterday.
Using the car’s Bluetooth connection and the in-car Sync infotainment display, as well as a Medtronic continuous glucose monitor, the system constantly relays information through Sync and is capable of alerting the driver if sugar levels become dangerously low.
Diabetes sufferers make up approximately 26 million of America’s population, but according to the American Diabetes Association, only a small number of these use some kind of glucose monitor. Using one while on the go could be more convenient.
If sugar levels become low, sufferers can experience blurry vision and feel light-headed; not a good combination while driving a vehicle. In such circumstances, the system sounds an alert to the driver and a light will illuminate on the dash, much like an engine warning light.
Although the system is only a prototype at the moment, it is showing promise. Up to 78 percent of US consumers are apparently very interested in ‘mobile health solutions’, and according to MobileStorm, health and self-help medical-type apps are among the third fastest growing in terms of popularity.
MEPs on the Transport Committee agreed Tuesday that the use of body scanners in EU airports would enhance security but said it should be voluntary.
They approved a report by Spanish Christian Democrat Luis de Grandes Pascual that backs the use of body scanners so long as they don't interfere with passenger privacy or pose health risks. The report should be voted in the plenary on 23 June 2011.
Scanners are already in use in UK and Dutch airports and have been tested in Germany, Italy, France and Finland. However, there are different standards including x-ray scans, MEPs want banned because of the health risks.
MEPs called for the following conditions to be met on body scanners:
To ensure passenger health
Ø a ban on scanners using ionising radiations, like x-rays
Ø the use of technology the least harmful to health
"We need to be sure that the new equipment will not impact people's health. Therefore, x-ray scans should be rejected," Mr de Grandes Pascual said.
To protect personal data, dignity and privacy
Ø "only stick figures should be used (and) no body images may be produced"
Ø no storage of images
Ø passengers must be able to opt for a manual search instead of a body scan
Ø scans should be random and non-discriminatory
"I believe people are prepared to sacrifice a bit of their privacy if there will be more security. The technology will just produce data on the screen. There will be no images to be saved," he added.
The EU draft report on the use of security scanners can be downloaded here:
As the growing volume of international travel has demanded greater attention from border control authorities, governments and their immigration ministries face many decisions on how to design programs that process travelers more efficiently–without sacrificing security.
Public opinion is that this current system of processing travelers tends to be cumbersome and inefficient, and it further supports the growing need to accurately identify travelers in a more cost effective, efficient manner for security and border control purposes.
New technologies, however, are enabling border security officials to address this problem, and some promising new systems are being implemented that may prove suitable for broader applications. One such model in the works has its roots in the 2007 Cricket World Cup (CWC). For that event, the participating host nations in the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) used a novel border security program to handle the high volume of travel between Barbados, Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago and the other host countries.
Following the successful use of these systems during the cricket event, CARICOM began discussions about how to continue using the existing infrastructure for travel between the countries, and to expand its availability to additional CARICOM states. The result of these discussions came to fruition with the introduction of CARIPASS, a travel card program that provides secure, simple border crossings for citizens and legal residents of 10 CARICOM nations.
At the gates, connected to the system’s user database, two biometric checks are conducted. Fingerprints captured at the time of passage are compared to the fingerprint templates stored on the card’s 2D barcode.
Additionally, a photo taken at the gate is compared via facial recognition to the card holder’s image stored in the system database. If matched, the gates open allowing the traveler to pass through. The gate prints a receipt for the traveler to document his or her valid entry. Users may then proceed directly to baggage and customs halls.
The NFC mobile wallet is gaining traction. Everyday another large financial institution announces its plans and systems to allow us to pay with a wave of our phones. Google is putting the full mobile wallet suite of applications together while Amazon and PayPal are said to have things in the works. Apple has applied for patents to dominate our travel plans utilizing NFC tech with its [Codename] iTravel app, and retailers are signing up in scores to be part of this digital payment revolution.
So far, here in the U.S., we have the Nexus S which thus far is the only smart phone to support NFC, but scores of others are rumored to be released this year. The U.K. has the aging Samsung Tocco which has been decked out with NFC and is being supported for payments by Visa through BarclayCard with Lloyds TSB hot on its heels supporting the 2012 Olympics with help from Visa and Samsung.
NXP, who is currently the main manufacturer of NFC chips, is expecting to ship 100 Million units within the next year alone. So yes, this is a massive shift and is set to be as pervasive as smart phones, and eventually as ubiquitous as plastic bank and credit cards. NFC is big business and companies are investing billions into its infrastructure & marketing to ensure we use it.
Watch the Video Demonstration here:
It may be behind the U.K. but our impatience for an NFC payment solution could soon be satiated if the NFC rumor mill is to be believed. As early as this next week, Citigroup & MasterCard could announce its PayPass NFC payment program nicely stashed inside of Google’s Mobile Wallet.
What this really means is that Americans who use Citi services and own a Google Nexus S will likely be able to download MasterCard’s PayPass application.
For those of us who don’t use a Citigroup MasterCard, there is also rumored to be prepaid cards. But don’t cut up those credit cards just yet though, as this service is not likely to go live until sometime during or after September. However, it is unclear at this moment whether the launch will be full on rollout or as we tend to think is more likely a trial.
BIO-key, announced on May 31, that Nationwide Children's Hospital, one of the largest and most comprehensive pediatric hospitals and research institutes in the United States, has implemented BIO-key's Positive ID Director for Epic, into their Epic user's workflow to insure their compliance with the Ohio Board of Pharmacies Positive ID requirements.
"Nationwide Children's Hospital has been using biometrics in association with our electronic medical records for over ten years. Our old biometrics solution never met our requirements.
Upon witnessing significant improvements in the hospitals ability to enroll users, provide an accurate and consistent authentication experience and offer a convenient flexible transition, the hospital elected to migrate to the BIO-key Positive ID system" stated Michael Hunt Information Services - Technology and Infrastructure Coordinator, Nationwide Children's Hospital.
