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| April 06, 2006
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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
Interoperable ID Seminar in Slovenia
The 9th Porvoo Group Seminar, which will look at issues relating to interoperable electronic ID will be held in Ljubljana, Slovenia, on 11-12 May 2006. On day 2 of the Seminar, the EBF's CEO, Max Snijder will present on the Minutiae Template Interoperability Testing Project, known as the MIT Project, which was launched last week.
The Porvoo Group's primary goal is to promote a trans-national, interoperable electronic identity, based on PKI technology (Public Key Infrastructure) and electronic ID cards, to help ensure secure public and private sector e-transactions in Europe.
The Porvoo group meets regulary every 6 months, each time in a different country. This time the Seminar is hosted by the Sloveninian Ministry of Public Administration and takes place in hotel LEV in Ljubljana.
More accurate on the eye. Iris scan tech improves but other biometrics still unreliable
The Home Office identity cards team has reported progress in improving verification by iris scans, but problems with other biometrics apparently persist.
In response to questions from Government Computing News, the Home Office has claimed that the technology for iris scanning has improved. It has not, however, made any claims for fingerprints and facial recognition.
Verification performance of the three main biometrics were recorded as part of the study on user experience published by the Home Office in late 2004. It showed success rates of 96 per cent for iris scans, 81 per cent for fingerprints and 69 per cent for facial recognition.
This has fuelled concerns that the technology for a biometric national identity card, the legislation for which has now received royal assent, does not work well enough for the cards to be used effectively.
The Register
Date: 2006-04-05 |
Human rights groups oppose bill for fingerprinting foreigners
(Japan Economic Newswire Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge)TOKYO, April 5_(Kyodo) _ Human rights groups, lawmakers and lawyers gathered Wednesday in Tokyo pledging a solid alliance in a fight to scrap a bill that enables the Japanese government to fingerprint foreigners as part of counterterrorism measures.
Amnesty International Japan, which co-hosted the gathering with Solidarity Network with Migrants Japan, criticized the House of Representatives for passing the bill on March 30 without thorough review and discussions.
The government-proposed bill, now at the House of Councillors, would allow immigration authorities to collect personal information including fingerprints and facial photographs on foreigners entering Japan.
Protect people, not data
I spent some of this week talking to parents about the phenomenon of fingerprinting kids in schools for the Guardian. (Surely fingerpainting was more fun.) One of the real frustrations among the people I spoke to was the lack of (helpful) response from the Information Commissioner's Office.
The systems that are being deployed in many school libraries in the UK (with doubtless other countries to follow if they succeed here) are made by www.microlib.co.ukMicro Librarian Systems. The fingerprinting side of it is really an add-on; without fingerprint readers, the kids use barcodes. One of the system's selling points seems to be that it doesn't need adult supervision, unlike library cards.
NewsWireless.net
Date: 2006-04-01 |
Singapore unveils biometric passport
From August, all passport holders in Singapore can apply for new travel documents with additional security features designed for international standards. The biometric passport, called BioPass, was unveiled Friday by the government. Each e-passport contains a polycarbonate page that is embedded with a contactless chip, carrying the owner's facial and fingerprint biometric identifiers.
According to Singapore's Immigration and CheckPoints Authority, the BioPass carries enhanced security features, such as multiple laser images, that are difficult to tamper with. Multiple laser images have been incorporated into Singapore identity cards since 1991. In addition, the cover of the BioPass carries the International Civil Aviation Organization's e-passport logo.
Finland to start issuing biometric passports in August
Finland's Ministry of the Interior said Friday that citizens could apply for the new biometric passports in August. A computer chip embedded in the passport contains the same information - including the picture - that is printed on the bearer information page. In practice, passport pictures will be digitised at police stations and saved on the chips. The biometric passport boasts a range of safety features that make it more difficult to forge and abuse than a standard passport. If Parliament approves the government bill, the biometric passport will be valid for five years. The change will not affect the validity of current passports.
Newsroom Finland
Date: 2006-03-31 |
'Tag all the foreigners' - possible ID card sales pitch emerges
Comment The Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) suggestion that the UK's illegal immigrant population should be offered amnesty (full report here) does not on the surface look entirely helpful to the Government. Could it be that one of the top Blairite think tanks has joined those sinking their fangs into Mr Tony? Perhaps - but The Register's department of strange coincidences sees a strong possibility that this is a lifeboat whose time is coming.
The Identity Cards Act finally (but one still hopes, temporarily) made it onto the statute book yesterday, and the Passport Service and all of its ultra vires identity-related activities will magically transform itself into the Identity and Passport Service tomorrow. We still don't accept that this is entirely legal, but phase one of the Government's incredible, improbable and unworkable joined-up border-watch, security and immigration policing system has now been given the Parliamentary green light, and immigration is one of the areas where it should bite first.
The Register
Date: 2006-03-31 |
Accenture to bid for identity card
THE consultancy group Accenture will bid for the contract to provide biometric technology for the UK’s Identity Register, which won parliamentary approval last week. The register will be the first stage of the country’s planned ID card system that will eventually hold unique biometric identifiers of every UK national and foreign visitor.
Experts at the London School of Economics have estimated that the total cost of the ID card scheme could hit £18bn (E25.8bn, $31.3bn), and installing and running the biometrics could account for a sizeable proportion of that.
Accenture, the global management consulting, technical services and outsourcing company, is preparing to bid for the biometrics contract, The Business has learned.
The Business Online
Date: 2006-04-02 |
Bread Box stores step into future to offer biometric pay system
(Knoxville News-Sentinel, The (TN) (KRT) Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge) Mar. 30--It's been perceived as clever, cool, a fad, an invasion of privacy or something out of a science fiction novel, but many retailers agree that biometric payments are the wave of the future. Bread Box, a Knoxville area convenience store chain, says it's the first company in Tennessee to give customers the option to pay for items with only the touch of a finger. The company's new BioPay system eliminates the need for checks, cash and other traditional payment methods by taking a finger scan that identifies customers by reading points of their fingerprints.
Biometrics lab advances ID technology
Cutting-edge research on an individual's identifiable characteristics is being conducted in Purdue's biometrics lab. Stephen Elliott, an assistant professor of industrial technology and head of the biometrics lab in the College of Technology, said the field of biometrics uses an individual's physical, biological and behavioral characteristics to identify that individual. Elliott said there are a lot of uses for this technology, the most prevalent of which is security. "We see biometrics being used in Lafayette (in locations) from ATMs and attendance at tanning salons and restaurants to access control." Elliott said biometrics can take the form of fingerprints, face recognition, voice verification, and signature verification.
The Exponent
Date: 2006-04-03 |
European Biometrics Market - Investment Analysis and Growth Opportunities
Published: 2006-04-04
Publisher: Frost & Sullivan
Document Type: Analyst Report
Description: Growing product standardization and increased venture capitalist interest are the prime drivers of the European biometrics markets. In this burgeoning field, both government and private customers are in support of standards that will ensure product quality, allow for interoperability as well as limit costs, thus making this a very attractive field for venture capitalists.
Frost & Sullivan finds that European Biometrics Markets earned revenues of $370.1 million in 2005 and estimates this figure to grow to $948.8 million in 2008.
ePayementsnews
Date: 2006-04-03 |
Passport rule change anticipates ID refusenik sabotage efforts
Updated The new UK Identity and Passport Service, spawned out of the Passport Service after the ID Cards Act became law on Saturday, celebrated its birth by trying to stop people renewing their passports whenever they want to, whether or not the passport is about to expire. The change in terms and conditions were slipped into the website without announcement, and were quite clearly ID card related.
And then, spookily close to the publication of The Register's first version of this story drawing attention to the change, they changed it back again. Fortunately, we have witnesses and while, no, we can't fathom precisely what they're up to, it's probably reasonable to guess that they know they have a potential problem, and they're going to have to figure out how to deal with it before ID cards go live.
The Register
Date: 2006-04-04 |
Review: New Software Technology Eases Biometric Process
Solution providers are no strangers when it comes to Biometrics, after all the technology is showing steady growth and helps to secure systems, while reducing support calls. There is a downside with the technology, the costs of fingerprint readers, retina scanners and other pieces of hardware that tend to be less than portable and add hardware costs to an already pricey solution.
Seattle based BioPassword is looking to help solution providers overcome those hardware hurdles with their software only solution, BioPassword. The product, which was announced Monday puts a new spin on the Biometric angle, user validation is determined by the behavioral biometrics of keyboard input. In other words, the software learns the frequency and arrangements of keystrokes (their unique typing rhythm) a user selects when inputting an account name and password.
id-Confirm(TM) Unveils Portable, Turnkey Biometric Solution to Financial Fraud and Identity Theft
DENVER, April 5 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Following five years of research and development, id-Confirm, Inc. introduced a new portable biometric identity verification solution today at the ISC West Conference in Las Vegas. Called the id-Confirm SecureLink System(TM), the solution provides a foolproof, privacy-sensitive method for business, government and private citizens to prevent identity theft and financial fraud with technology that is ready-to-use and simple to deploy.
PRNewswire
Date: 2006-04-05 |
Gemplus, Saflink Launch Contactless Card Reader For U.S. Government
France-based smart card maker Gemplus International S.A. has signed a deal with Saflink Corp., a U.S.-based developer of biometric smart card readers, through which Saflink will incorporate a Gemplus contactless card reader into one of its biometric readers. Gemplus says that its GemProx contactless reader will be inserted into Saflink's SureAccess card reader, and that the combined offering will be marketed to the U.S. government, which is required by law to begin issuing upgraded identification cards to employees and contractors by October. Scott Azzolina, marketing manager for Gemplus Corp., Gemplus International's U.S. subsidiary, tells Card Technology sister publication CardLine Europe that the combined reader will allow authorized individuals to gain access to secure locations by waving a contactless card near the device and placing their finger on a biometric reader.
Card Technology
Date: 2006-04-05 |
Datastrip's DSVII-SC becomes first handheld biometric ID reader with built-in HID iCLASS support
Datastrip has upgraded its handheld biometric ID reader to accept HID iCLASS-based cards, eliminating the need for an add-on compact flash reader. The expanded reader, available in the third quarter, will sport a new smart card interface and means companies deploying iCLASS cards will be able to use the reader to extend identity checks beyond fixed doorways.
Contactless News
Date: 2006-04-06 |
Id-Confirm launches handheld biometric authentication device
Following five years of research and development, id-Confirm, Inc. introduced a new portable biometric identity verification solution today at the ISC West Conference in Las Vegas.
Called the id-Confirm SecureLink System, the solution provides a foolproof, privacy-sensitive method for business, government and private citizens to prevent identity theft and financial fraud with technology that is ready-to-use and simple to deploy. The new system provides the industry's highest level of security using multi-factor authentication deployed in a handheld device that's half the size of a small cell phone. The patent-pending id-Confirm SecureLink System includes all the software, hardware and services required for immediate implementation in an integrated, end-to-end solution.
Alcatel's Genesys acquires voice-recognition company
Networking giant Alcatel SA is on the acquisition path again, this time via its voice solution subsidiary, Genesys Telecommunications Laboratories Inc, which has acquired privately held VoiceGenie Technologies Inc for an undisclosed cash amount.Alcatel said the deal will give the combined entity nearly 25% of the voice portal market, more than twice the size of its closest competitor. Alcatel also said it expects the market for voice self-service to double in the next three years.
Precise Biometrics lands Thai ID-card contract
Precise Biometrics, a Swedish public company that develops and sells biometric security solutions based on fingerprints and smart cards, has received a new order from Thai authorities for biometrics for national identification (ID) cards.
Precise Biometrics said expected revenues for the order, covering three years, would generate 20 million Swedish kroner (Bt100 million).
The Thai project will use Precise Biometrics in conjunction with Smart Card Systems International (SSI) to deliver biometrics for ID cards to the Kingdom's 65 million citizens. Last April, Precise Biometrics received its first Thai order, a licence agreement for 12 million ID cards. The firm has received more orders for the rest. President and CEO Christer Bergman said that this second order was worth Sk20 million.
The Nation
Date: 2006-04-06 |
IBG Hosts Biometric Interoperability in Border Management Teleconference
NEW YORK, April 6 /PRNewswire/ -- The international community has begun to embrace e-passports, driven in part by International Civil Aviation Organization specifications for integration of biometric data into machine readable travel documents. To support these developments and to advance biometrics' role in border control applications, standards bodies and industry experts are working to define interoperability criteria and tests for biometric technologies used in border management applications.
On April 13, 2006, International Biometric Group (IBG) will host a teleconference on biometric interoperability in border management applications. The teleconference will be held at 1:00 PM EDT (10:00 AM PDT; 1700 UTC).
PR Newswire
Date: 2006-04-06 |
Francais
D'ici deux ans, la carte biométrique sera généralisée
La reine d'Angleterre a promulgué hier la loi autorisant l'utilisation de la carte d'identité biométrique pour ses sujets. Les britanniques qui ne disposent pas de carte d'identité comme chez nous devront donc disposer dans les deux ans qui suivent d'une carte à puce comportant des informations très personnelles les concernant.
Si les britanniques ont disposé jadis d'une carte d'identité papier, celle-ci avait été abandonnée en 1952. Les temps changent... Aujourd'hui, pour des raisons de sécurité nationale, le gouvernement de Tony Blair a souhaité avec ces cartes d'identité biométrique lutter sur trois fronts
GenerationNT
Date: 2006-04-01 |
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