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| May 05, 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
E-commerce in crisis: When SSL isn't safe.
A secure connection between browser and back end underlies Internet commerce. But what if it’s already compromised?
The Great Train Robbery of 1963 netted $69 million in today’s dollars. The largest bank heists have scored more than $80 million. But “stick-’em-up” bank robberies offer high risks and low rewards: According to the FBI, the average U.S. bank heist yields just $4,200 -- and between 50 and 75 percent of perpetrators get caught.
Robbing a brick-and-mortar bank seems like petty theft compared with a new breed of cybercrime that, according to a growing number of security experts, is siphoning untold millions of dollars from banks and their customers using SSL-evading Trojans and ever more refined phishing techniques.
InfoWorld
Date: 2006-05-01 |
France Meets U.S. Requirements for E-Passports
The Department of Homeland Security announced today that new digital passports issued by France are compliant with U.S. technical requirements for countries participating in the Visa Waiver Program (VWP).
French e-Passports are fully compatible with U.S. e-Passport readers. They also comply with digital photograph requirements that the United States put into effect for VWP travelers on October 26, 2005. Travelers with e-Passports issued by France will immediately be entitled to enter the United States without a visa if they are otherwise eligible for the program. Individuals holding French passports that are not electronic and issued after October 26, 2005, will continue to require a visa.
Faces click with police
DeLAND -- It's like a computerized version of Mr. Potato Head.
Mouse-click here: a forehead with hair. Mouse-click there: a pair of eyes. Click, click -- a nose, a chin.
Voila, a face.
While not new, this seemingly simple computer technology increasingly is helping detectives around the country with one of the most difficult parts of their job: identifying suspects. And although many agencies -- such as the Orange County Sheriff's Office and Orlando Police Department -- still rely on trained sketch artists, the software has begun popping up in Central Florida.
It's how DeLand police arrested 21-year-old Brandon Scott Johnson last week on armed-robbery charges.
Orlando Sentinel
Date: 2006-05-04 |
VoxGen launches voice banking protection system
VoxGen has launched an identification & verification (ID&V) product for the financial services sector, underlining the potential applications of voice verification biometrics - a market projected to be worth over $100 million for the first time next year.
The voice banking protection system, which enables a user to record a voiceprint via an automated telephone service and use it to access their bank account details.
Biometrics wins favour from the lazy
Users worldwide are starting to accept biometrics, and even chip implants, out of laziness. The desire for an easy life is over-riding privacy concerns, according to a global survey.
There has been a five percent increase in people who favour the use of biometrics as a preferred method of identity verification, according to a survey of 1661 people worldwide by Unisys. Some 10 percent of individuals in the Asia-Pacific region would even prefer a chip implanted in their body.
TechWorld
Date: 2006-05-04 |
Biometrics. NOT YET UNDER YOUR THUMB
For years, biometric identification technology has promised to do away with passwords and personal identification numbers simply scan your fingerprint or speak a command, and you would be given access to a system. But biometrics is still probably some years away from enjoying widespread commercial adoption.
Biometric security technologies, which measure unique physical and behavioural characteristics to determine whether a person has the right to access a restricted space, won't solve all security headaches. That's the view of Standard Bank director of technology Hemmanth Singh.
It has to be 100% safe before we can use it, he says. Right now, it's not, Singh says.
His circumspect view of biometrics is in contrast to the enthusiasm of computer software and hardware developers, who see it as the greatest advance in IT security since the invention of the user name and password.
Behold the Body Biometric
Before long, we may use fingerprints, iris scans, and voice recognition to log onto computers, buy groceries -- even when picking up kids from school
This could be you: At a convenience store, a scanner reads your fingerprints and deducts the price of a coffee and doughnut from your checking account. Once at the office, your employer uses software to monitor the rhythm of your typing or a Webcam to measure the proportions of your face before letting you onto the network. Your call to customer service won't go through until you're identified by the cadence of your voice....
BusinessWeek Online
Date: 2006-05-01 |
Is Biometrics Coming Of Age?
As Devices Get More Affordable, Data Centers May Start Scanning
Once fodder for sci-fi and spy thrillers, biometrics has matured to the point where even home users can employ a bit of 007 for protecting their laptops. The technology, once considered too expensive for many smaller data centers, can now be utilized with existing access controls to provide an extra layer of security for doors, devices, and servers.
After years of trying to woo enterprises and consumers into utilizing biometrics, it seems the industry is finally taking off, according to the IBG (International Biometric Group). A recent report projected biometric revenue growth from $2.1 billion this year to $5.7 billion by 2010. A robust market often draws innovators and developers, and that’s good news for small to medium-sized enterprises, thanks to the subsequent competition.
Processors
Date: 2006-05-05 |
Politicians blinded by biometrics
For more than 100 years fingerprint identifications were seen as infallible and prisoners were condemned to the gallows on the strength of that evidence alone. Then came DNA, another invaluable crime-prevention and detection tool that was embraced by the police, politicians and courts.
As the threat of terrorism increased, the biometric industry really came into its own and offered everything from retina scans to voice recognition. Identity cards were seen as our only hope of salvation in an increasingly violent world. Voices of reason were silenced as politically- and commercially-motivated interest groups used the weapon of fear to push through their ill-thought-out plans.
The herald
Date: 2006-05-05 |
Biometrics For The SME
If you’re fed up with passwords and don’t trust PINs, it could be time to use something new to secure your data center: your body. Your fingerprints, faceprints, voiceprints, eyeprints, and even the veins in the back of your hand are part of today’s bleeding-edge biometrics, some of which are designed for the small to midsized enterprise.
Take your fingerprint, the simplest and cheapest biometric in use. Fingerprint scanners read the “minutiae points” (where a friction ridge begins or ends) and “bifurcations” (where a ridge splits into two or more ridges) to see if you’re the person you say you are and unlock doors or systems in response.
While simple print readers have been a mainstay of the biometric market for years, they’re making their way onto more and more devices, including USB drives that are easy to lose or steal.
Processors
Date: 2006-05-05 |
Biometric bouncer
A Russian biometric data-controlled turnstile can allow or deny access based on a rapid 3D infrared scan of users’ faces. The security system, developed by specialists of the Scientific Production Association’s Information branch, was awarded the Best Innovation title at the 12th International Guarding, Security and Fire Protection Exhibition in Moscow. In one and a half seconds, the turnstile can create and analyse a scanned image and take a decision to allow or to prohibit entrance. The device looks like a traditional “three-fingered” turnstile as used in public transport stations and sports arenas, but equipped with a small screen. A series of parallel infrared rays are aimed at a person’s face as they approach.
The engineer online
Date: 2006-05-04 |
Opening of a new European Biometrics Centre of Excellence
A new European Biometrics Centre of Excellence (CoE) was created in the heart of the Europe Union, in Brussels, Belgium. The new centre is an interactive facility, designed to showcase advanced identity management solutions to customers and illustrate potential real-life examples of biometrics technology. These range from cutting edge e-ID card and passport technology to the very advanced biometric identification techniques including 3D facial, electronic iris and finger print recognition.
eGov Monitor
Date: 2006-05-03 |
Passport interviews to be compulsory for all
Face-to-face interviews will be compulsory for all passport applicants by 2009, even for renewals reports Mark Frary
Graphic: the locations of the 69 Authentication by Interview offices, which will open later this year to facilitate interviews of passport applicants. Face-to-face interviews lasting up to 20 minutes are to be compulsory for all passport applicants, even for renewals, a measure that will dramatically increase the time it takes to get a new passport.
Plans to interview first-time applicants have been known since last year and will be implemented later this year, when an estimated 600,000 adults will be required to attend a face-to-face interview with staff of the Identity and Passport Service (IPS), the new name of the UK Passport Service, as of April 1.
Times Online
Date: 2006-05-03 |
U.S. firms protest deal on ID cards
WASHINGTON Executives from some leading U.S. identity-verification companies are pushing Congress to rescind a provision of a law that they said could lead to a foreign-owned company's handling of sensitive personal records for up to 750,000 port workers.
The Department of Homeland Security, as part of the budget law passed last year, was ordered to hire the American Association of Airport Executives, an aviation trade group, to process applications for a new tamper-proof identification card for maritime workers.
Representative Harold Rogers, Republican of Kentucky, the chairman of the subcommittee that oversees the homeland security budget, had pressed for the language, saying the trade association, a nonprofit group, could expedite the project because it had performed similar work for airport workers.
International Herald Tribune
Date: 2006-05-03 |
Deutsch
Fingerabdruck-Scanner ersetzt Türsteher
Eine Stadt im Süden Englands hat Nachtlokale mit Fingerabdruck-Scannern ausgerüstet, um Trunkenbolde fern zu halten.
Biometrie findet immer öfter auch im Alltag Verwendung. In Großbritannien etwa testet derzeit die Stadt Yeovil Fingerabdrucksysteme in Pubs, Clubs und Discotheken und will damit notorischen Randalierern und Raufbolden den Garaus machen.
Das Projekt "In Touch" wird von sechs Lokalen in der Stadt unterstützt, die untereinander vernetzt sind. Nachtschwärmer geben beim Eintritt in das Lokal ihren Fingerabdruck und einmalig einen Ausweis her. Danach brauchen sie nur mehr ihren Finger auf den Scanner drücken.
"Das System soll die identifizieren, die darauf aus sind, Probleme zu machen", so der Kommentar eines Polizisten.
Security durch "Gedankenlesen"
Weder Witz noch Esoterik: Gehirnwellen werden vielleicht einmal als biometrisches Erkennungsmerkmal nutzbar sein.
Während biometrische Sicherheitsmaßnahmen wie Fingerabdruck, Iris-Scan oder Stimmenerkennung im Alltag immer öfter zur Verifikation von Personen eingesetzt werden, klingt ein neuer Ansatz kanadischer Forscher derzeit noch wie reinste Science-Fiction.
Wissenschaftler der Carleton University sind davon überzeugt, dass Gehirnwellenströme in Zukunft als individuelle biometrische Sicherheitsmerkmale verwendet werden können. Entstanden ist die Idee während der Entwicklung eines neuen "Brain-Computer-Interfaces" (BCI), das unter anderem dazu eingesetzt wird, um gelähmten Menschen die Benutzung von Computern, externen Maschinen oder auch Prothesen zu ermöglichen.
Inside-IT
Date: 2006-05-04 |
Biometrische Zugangskontrolle per Fingerprint von ELCOM
5.5.2006) Der Bedarf an einer zuverlässigen Identifikation ist heutzutage in nahezu allen Bereichen gegeben, in denen es Eigentum und/oder Personen zu schützen gilt. Kein Unternehmen und keine Person möchte seine geistigen bzw. materiellen Werte unzureichendem Schutz und damit nahezu unbegrenztem Zugriff aussetzen. Zu den verschiedenen Konzepten der Zugangskontrolle gehört die Biometrie. So nutzen Fingerprint-Zugangskontrollsysteme wie beispielsweise von ELCOM die eindeutigen Merkmale des Fingerabdruckes zur Authentifizierung und stellen damit eine bemerkenswerte Alternative zu Schlüssel oder Chipkarten dar. Als moderne "stand-alone" Zugangskontrolle mit einer Speicherkapazität von bis zu 99 Fingern / Benutzern, eignet sich das ELCOM-System für das Ein- und Mehrfamilienhaus ebenso wie für kleinere Unternehmen.
Baulinks.de
Date: 2006-05-04 |
EU-Parlamentarier fordern besseren Datenschutz für Schengen-Informationssystem
Abgeordnete des Europaparlaments haben einen besseren Datenschutz für das künftige Schengen-Informationssystem gefordert. Im Ausschuss für Bürgerliche Freiheiten, Justiz und Inneres bestehe dazu eine breite Übereinstimmung, sagte der federführende portugiesische Abgeordnete Carlos Coelho von der konservativen EVP-Fraktion, berichtet dpa aus Brüssel. Allerdings bahne sich ein Streit darüber an, ob Fahnder biometrische Daten als Suchkriterien verwenden dürfen. Ende April hatte sich zu dem Thema bereits die europäische Datenschutzkonferenz zu Wort gemeldet und einen hohen Datenschutzstandard gefordert.
Heise Online
Date: 2006-05-04 |
Passwortschutz durch bloße Gedanken
Passwörter sind ein alter Hut, wenn man sich die fortschreitende Technik ansieht. Biometrische Sicherheitsmaßnahmen wie Fingerabdruck, Iris-Scan oder Stimmenerkennung kommen sogar im Alltag immer öfter vor. Doch was kanadische Forscher derzeit angehen, klingt wie reinste Science-Fiction: Passwortschutz durch Gedankenübertragung!
Francais
A quoi sert la biométrie dans le monde ?
Actuellement, les techniques biométriques sont principalement utilisées dans trois secteurs : l'identification judicaire, l’administration (papiers d’identité…) et les contrôle d’accès, que ce soit dans des établissements publics ou privés.
L'identification judiciaire
Dans le domaine de l'identification judiciaire, deux grandes techniques sont utilisées : l'empreinte digitale et l'empreinte génétique.
20Minutes
Date: 2006-05-05 |
Suisse : Passeport biométrique en phase de test
GENEVE, 2 mai (XINHUA) -- Quelque 160 passeports biométriques lisibles électroniquement sont d'ores et déjà testés avant leur mise en service officielle en septembre prochain en Suisse, a annoncé mardi l'Office fédéral suisse de la police ( fedpol).
Les 160 prototypes seront réalisés pour vérifier les systèmes techniques et de production des nouveaux documents. Des volontaires d'âge et d'apparence différents se sont mis à disposition pour le test, a indiqué fedpol, ajoutant que les photos digitales devront être réalisées dans des centres de saisie biométrique mis sur pied spécialement à cet effet.
Nederlands
NIEUW PASPOORTDOCUMENT BEVAT CHIP
Vorige week maandag is het nieuwe model paspoort en Nationale identiteitskaart gepresenteerd. De introductie van een nieuwe ‘generatie’ elektronische Nederlandse reisdocumenten zal plaatsvinden op zaterdag 26 augustus 2006. Met de invoering van de elektronische reisdocumenten op die dag voldoet Nederland aan de eisen van de Europese Unie.
Het paspoort en de Nederlandse identiteitskaart krijgen een chip.
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