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| November 22, 2007
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Dear readers,
The Biometrics Info provides you with the latest news on biometrics, smartcards and network security. We provide you with this free service 2 or 3 times a week depending on the news available.
We provide a RSS feed for daily use. During the week all the news will be available through the RSS feed with a weekly summary on friday through the Biometrics Info e-zine.
We carefully selected the newsarticles for this Biometrics Info and we hope you appreciate this edition.
Enjoy reading.
Reinier M. van der Drift
BioXS
English
britain apologizes for 'inexcusable' data loss. Government loses personal details of half the country's population
LONDON — British Finance Minister Alistair Darling apologized “unreservedly” on Wednesday after admitting the government had lost the personal details of half of Britain's population.
Darling was forced to admit to parliament on Tuesday that the government's tax authority had lost data on 25 million people — potentially the largest data security lapse in British history and one which lays those 25 million people open to the risk of identity theft and bank fraud.
“It is inexcusable, I deeply regret it, I unreservedly apologize for what has happened,” Mr. Darling told BBC television.
Mr. Darling told parliament two discs containing the information had disappeared after being sent by courier and a police investigation was under way.
Globe & Mail
Date: 2007-11-22 |
Souder Says Biometrics the Solution, but Others Curse the Cure
Rep. Mark Souder has become a crusader for biometrics ID cards, but admits the political environment is not yet ripe for making them a part of Americans’ everyday life.
IDs encrypted with images of their holders’ fingerprints and irises would not only be the best tool to identify terrorists, says the Indiana Republican, but would go a long way toward helping people avoid the inconveniences associated with many homeland security initiatives.
Souder has taken up the biometric cause from his spot as the top GOP member on the House Homeland Security Border, Maritime and Global Counterterrorism Subcommittee. His district is also home to a facility owned by Beaverton, Ore.-based Digimarc Corp., a producer of 32 states’ drivers licenses, including some with biometric information; about 75 people work at the Fort Wayne offices.
But despite worries about homeland security, even the strongest supporters of biometrics acknowledge that concerns about privacy and long-standing visceral objections to anything that could be considered a “national ID card” are likely to block progress on the issue.
Then there is the question of whether the technology can be made to work effectively.
CQ Politics
Date: 2007-11-21 |
ID cards in spotlight after data loss
LONDON (Reuters) - Critics of plans for compulsory identity cards said on Wednesday the multi-billion pound scheme should be ditched after the government admitted it had mislaid personal details of half the population.
Opposition politicians and opponents said the revelation that the HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) tax authority had lost data on 25 million people showed the government could not be trusted to bring in ID cards, which would involve one of the world's biggest IT schemes.
Prime Minister Gordon Brown's government intends to start rolling out the biometric cards, which will carry fingerprint, iris and face-recognition technology, from 2009.
Ministers say the cards are vital to fight terrorism, serious organised crime and illegal immigration.
Foreign arrivals get biometric scan @ Japan
NARITA, Chiba Pref. — Japan began fingerprinting and photographing foreigners arriving in the country Tuesday under a revised immigration law to keep terrorists out, drawing criticism from rights groups and foreign residents that their data might be abused.
The process at Narita airport, on the first day at least, saw few problems or delays.
The revised Immigration Control and Refugee Recognition Law, which cleared the Diet in May 2006, requires all non-Japanese aged 16 and older entering the country, including those with permanent resident status, to provide their biometric data.
Home Office insists biometric data is secure
The Home Office last night sought to shore up public trust in its £5.6bn identity card project, as the failure over child benefit records fed into anxieties over so-called "Big Brother" databases.
Critics of the "surveillance society" claimed the ID cards project could not now go ahead without a review of its privacy safeguards to see if they worked. They also raised concern about leaks from other databases, including NHS personal records and the new children's register.
Home Office insists biometric data is secure
The Home Office insisted that the biometric elements in its database, the electronic fingerprints and facial scans, will keep it secure and proof against identity theft, even if there were to be a major breach and stolen confidential data.
"The biometric means that it will be much more difficult to use somebody else's identity, as they will have to provide the correct fingerprint or facial image at the same time. You can't create a fingerprint or a face," said a Home Office spokesman. He also emphasised that the identity register would also be protected by a chip-and-pin with severe penalties for those who tried to access the database illegally.
Blind them with biometrics
n the midst of the storm over the loss of the child benefit data and serious questioning around the viability of the NIR and ID cards, the Home Office issued the following statement:
The biometric means that it will be much more difficult to use somebody else's identity, as they will have to provide the correct fingerprint or facial image at the same time. You can't create a fingerprint or a face," said a Home Office spokesman. He also emphasised that the identity register would also be protected by a chip-and-pin with severe penalties for those who tried to access the database illegally.
A couple of points spring to mind:
* Biometrics won't be mandatory to access data held in the identity register.
* Presumably sending sensitive data via a TNT courier is contrary to government procedures and subject to punishment.
The reality is that there is always going to be a risk of human error or security breaches. Just as financial investors tend not to put all of their money behind one company's shares (Northern Rock anyone!) the key is to mitigate the risk by spreading it. Building a honking great database of identity information; DNA; children's records; health records ... is not the way to go.
FishnChipsPapers
Date: 2007-11-21 |
BioLink Biometrics is the Core of Nigerian ECOWAS Passports
Nigeria. (SANEPR.com) November 21, 2007 -- As of today, e-passports are accepted and deployed globally by a number of countries as an effective tool to protect individuals and their personal information against fraud and counterfeit.
The new passports to be issued for Nigerians contain a digital face photo as well as thumb and forefinger fingerprint templates. Fingerprint identification is based on BioLink’s scalable and fault-tolerant solutions and algorithms, which are among leaders in independent tests. In implementing this project, BioLink co-operated with its strategic partners Iris Smart Technologies Ltd (ISTL), Nigeria, and IRIS Corporation Berhad, Malaysia. As a system integrator, ISTL is responsible for integrating technologies provided by various vendors, rendering the required services, including system maintenance on-site. IRIS is the supplier of the passport disposal system software, electronic inlays for e-passports and is responsible for printing the new passports.
Biometric information to be included in electoral roll
Ivory Coast’s managing director of the National Institute for Statistics said on Tuesday that biometric information will be included in the electoral roll of the country ahead of the coming general elections in the country.
Mathieu Meleu told APA that the biometric information that will be added to the electoral roll constitutes a major innovation because “it will help us produce more reliable lists."
He said the next electoral roll will be published on the Internet with the picture of each voter attached.
He also said that his institute will rely on the 2,000 electoral roll in line with the Ouagadougou agreement as the main data base.
« We are also going to use the 1990 list because it incorporates both nationals and foreigners, » he said.
Journal Chretien
Date: 2007-11-21 |
Face Identification Software offers smartcard add-on.
November 21, 2007 - Available for VeriLook and MegaMatcher, Smartcard Face-Match stores and verifies biometric facial information on smartcard, allowing individuals to maintain and protect their own information. Microprocessor embedded in card does matching of face templates so that biometric information does not transfer to external computer. When coupled with face template generation algorithms, add-on provides facial identification for secured entry, computer user authentication, and financial transactions.
ThomasNet
Date: 2007-11-21 |
Fingerprint sensor firm releases biometric processor
LONDON — Fingerprint Cards AB (Gothenburg, Sweden) has released a fingerprint biometric processor ASIC, the FPC2020. The FPC2020 acts a data processing subsystem to the FPC1011C sensor and links to the sensor and to external flash memory for storing fingerprint templates.
The processor, Fingerprint's third generation processor, is being aimed at use in door locks, card readers and safes or other applications where there is a need for an embedded biometric security.
The FPC2020 can create fingerprint templates and stores them in flash memory, the company said. The chip has a number of modes of operation including: one-to-one verification mode, one-to-many identification mode. Host interfaces include serial UART and SPI the device operates from a 2.5 to 3.3 volt supply.
Fingerprint, founded in 1997 and listed on the Stockholm stock exchange in 1998, did not say what manufacturing process is being used for the FPC2020 or where the chip is being manufactured.
At your fingertips: Passwords to the past
Take a moment to think about how many passwords you use every day. If you bank online and log on to check your balance, you'll use one, then another for logging on to a work email, and perhaps one more for a Google or Yahoo! email account. Facebook junkies are prompted for a password, as is anyone who decides to download a song on iTunes, or do a bit of internet shopping.
A survey by the organisers of Info-security Europe, the information security industry trade fair, found that the average number of passwords used at work is five per person – so, with personal passwords factored in, most people use about 12 passwords every day.
Wouldn't life be easier if all we had to do to get on to email or pay for the weekly shopping was to place a thumb on a fingerprint scanner on your computer's keyboard? It would mean the end of having to memorise endless PIN numbers and passwords to keep our identities secure.
The Independent
Date: 2007-11-21 |
Put palms down and say cheese, U.S. tells visitors
WASHINGTON–To keep the United States safe, two will no longer do.
Visitors to this country – including any Canadians who need visas to enter the U.S. – will soon have to provide all 10 fingerprints for entry, not just the two required under an existing program known as US-VISIT.
Homeland Security and border officials said yesterday the first test program will be up and running at Washington's Dulles Airport Nov. 29 and they expect to have it in place at Toronto and other Canadian airports where travellers are pre-screened later in 2008.
They are also pledging to have it in effect at all Canada-U.S. land border crossings by the end of 2008, or shortly after separate land and sea rules requiring passports or secure driver's licences go into effect under the existing Homeland Security department timetable.
Pressure group: perverts will use tech to track your kids
A pressure group has warned of worsening threats to children's rights in the UK from biometric and tracking technologies.
ARCH, Action on Rights for Children, is a not-for-profit organisation run by a group of concerned citizens, including a Professor of Childhood Studies and the borough citizenship coordinator for Tower Hamlets.
Also on the board is the director of the Phoenix Education Trust, "a small national charity which promotes education in which all members of the school community [including pupils] have a voice and real power".
The Register
Date: 2007-11-20 |
Deutsch
Grenzschutz: Schengen-Daten im Salzburger Bunker
Das Computersystem zum Schutz der EU-Außengrenzen erhält einen riesigen Datenspeicher in Österreich.
Salzburg. Er dient in Krisenzeiten der zivilen und militärischen Führung Österreichs als sicherer Unterschlupf, beherbergt die Zentrale der militärischen Luftraumüberwachung und einen Hochsicherheits-Datenspeicher des Bundes: der Bunker im Heukareck in St. Johann im Pongau. Im kommenden Jahr zieht auch das Schengen-Informationssystem SIS II in die in 300 Metern Tiefe liegenden Hochsicherheits-Räume ein. Das Computersystem soll künftig die Kontrolle an den Außengrenzen der EU mit der Bereitstellung von Daten über gesuchte Personen und Diebesgut erleichtern.
DiePresse
Date: 2007-11-21 |
Durchleuchtete Kunden
Gleich beim Betreten seiner Bank wird der Kunde von einer Kamera entdeckt. Durch biometrischen Gesichtsabgleich erkennt ihn das elektronische Auge und leitet seine Daten an eine Betreuerin im Empfangsbereich weiter.
Auf ihrem mobilen Tablet-PC, einem tragbaren Computer, empfängt sie Informationen zu seinen Kindern, aber auch zum Lieblingsgetränk. Das klingt nach Zukunftsmusik? Ist es auch. Doch schon bald könnte diese Idee des Fraunhofer-Instituts für Arbeitswirtschaft und Organisation Realität werden. Immerhin haben die Wissenschaftler unter der Leitung von Martin Engstler ihre Einfälle bereits in eigenen Räumen zum Praxistest aufgebaut.
Die Informationstechnologie wird zu einem entscheidenden Erfolgsfaktor in der Bankenwelt. Sie erlaubt, Finanzdienstleistungen zielgerichtet, günstig, schnell und sicher zu erbringen. Nicht nur im Backoffice, sondern direkt an der Schnittstelle zum Kunden.
Financial Times Deutschland
Date: 2007-11-20 |
Ab sofort biometrische Erfassung bei der Einreise nach Japan
Geschäftsreisende, die heute nach Japan geflogen sind, mussten sich erstmals der ab sofort für alle Ausländer obligatorischen Einreiseprozedur unterziehen: Zwei Fingerabdrücke nehmen und als Nichtjapaner auch ein Foto von sich schießen lassen.
An allen 27 Flughäfen und 126 Häfen des Inselreichs gilt die biometrische Zwangsvermessung. Computer sollen mit den gewonnenen Daten Menschen auf Bildern von Überwachungskameras wiederfinden können. Die neuen Maschinen an der Passkontrolle verfügen oben über eine Kamera mit Monitor und unten über V-förmig angeordnete Fingerabdrucksensoren. Der Computer fordert einen beim Fotografieren so lange zu neuen Fotos auf, bis er mit dem Neigungswinkel des Kopfes zufrieden ist. Schließlich muss auch die Datenqualität stimmen. Und das kann dauern, wie Reisende gegenüber DMM berichteten.
Mobilitats manager
Date: 2007-11-20 |
Francais
Le scandale de la perte des données de 25 millions de Britanniques scandalise outre-Manche
"Choquant, risible, hilarant, incroyable (mais) au-delà de la farce, criminellement irresponsable, et impardonnable", écrit le Times. Pour le Financial Times, il s'agit d'une "bourde", pour le Guardian d'un "désastre", pour The Independent d'une "débâcle". Le scandale de la perte, par l'administration fiscale, de deux cédéroms contenant une copie des données personnelles de près de la moitié des Britanniques, fait la "une" de toute la presse d'outre-Manche. Le 18 octobre, un responsable des services fiscaux a en effet envoyé à une administration officielle deux cédéroms non cryptés contenant l'ensemble des dossiers d'allocations familiales du pays. Mais le colis, qui n'avait pas été envoyé en recommandé, n'est jamais arrivé.
Immigration : encore un « détail » biométrique
Une large mobilisation s’est affirmée, à juste raison, contre l’amendement introduisant les tests ADN de filiation dans le projet de loi sur l’immigration adopté le 23 octobre 2007. Toutefois, les prises de positions qui ont reçu le plus d’attention médiatique ont ignoré que cet amendement s’inscrit dans une logique de contrôle biométrique, en constant développement depuis quelques années déjà, notamment mais pas uniquement à l’encontre des étrangers.
Une nouvelle pierre a été ajoutée à l’édifice par un autre amendement au projet de loi sur l’immigration. Son texte est obscur : « L’article L. 611-3 du code de l’entrée et du séjour des étrangers et du droit d’asile est complété par un alinéa ainsi rédigé : "Il en est de même des bénéficiaires de l’aide au retour mentionnée au dernier alinéa du I de l’article L. 511-1." ». Traduction : ils seront fichés par leurs données biométriques (photographie et empreintes digitales). La CNIL n’a pas soufflé mot, elle est pourtant directement concernée.
1000Babords
Date: 2007-11-22 |
Nederlands
Arjan Dasselaar: Call for nerds
Elke werkdag leest u hier mijn mening. Nu heb ik die van u nodig. Maar voor ik begin: dit wordt een erg nerderig stukje, en niet-nerds zullen ongetwijfeld hoofdschuddend afhaken. Zeg niet dat ik u niet heb gewaarschuwd.
Als de fijne mensen van Giesbers MaasDijken een beetje doorwerken, krijg ik ergens tussen nu en het einde van dit decennium mijn nieuwe huis opgeleverd.
Je kunt het als beroepsnerd uiteraard niet maken om je huis niet vol te proppen met allerlei geavanceerde gadgets. Het probleem is alleen dat ik niet precies weet hoe ik sommige voorzieningen het beste kan realiseren. Daarom hoor ik graag uw suggesties voor onderstaande snufjes:
Planet Internet
Date: 2007-11-19 |
Benzine betalen met je vingerafdruk
Tien Shell tankstations zijn uitgerust met dit biometrisch systeem dat de vingerafdruk van de klanten herkent. De Pay By Touch-apparaten zijn direct verbonden met het betaalsysteem van de klant. Shell plaatst de apparaten overigens ook in de winkels bij de benzinepompen. Het bedrijf Pay By Touch werkt al sinds 2002 aan de ontwikkeling van biometrische systemen.
De Gelderlander
Date: 2007-11-19 |
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