• Government plans new biometric passport rollout

    The U.K. government is planning to begin issuing new biometric passports in the autumn; the Home Secretary said the government was looking at providing better physical security and stronger electronic security for a new design of passport to be made available from 5 October

  • Could-based voice biometrics e-commerce platform launched

    The industry’s first voice biometrics-driven e-commerce platform launched; the cloud-based service allows retailers instantly to set up and run their online business, processing transactions using voice biometrics to authenticate and authorize their online, and mobile-based electronic payments

  • Fingerprint Security Briefcase keeps papers safe

    Biometrically protected briefcase may be nice to have, but since most business people now carry sensitive information digitally, one observer thinks that a more practical solution a giant USB key

  • Despite warnings, sensitive components of U.S. e-Passport are assembled in Thailand

    Security experts have warned about the security risks for a while now, but a U.S. government contractor is still assembling a key passport component in Thailand; the Government Printing Office (GPO) inspector general has warned the GPO lacks a basic security plan for protecting blank e-Passports from theft by terrorists, foreign spies, or counterfeiters

  • Aviation security milestone: TSA performs 100 percent watch-list matching for domestic flights

    DHS now performs 100 percent watch list matching for domestic flights through TSA’s Secure Flight program; 99 percent of passengers will be cleared by Secure Flight to print boarding passes at home by providing their date of birth, gender and name as it appears on the government ID they plan to use when traveling when booking airline tickets

  • Biometrics and cloud computing

    More and more biometric-enabled identity cards are being issued by governments; taking these cards into the streets and other remote locations will increase the demand for mobile biometric devices; these mobile devices permit a country to take biometric-based critical services directly to citizens, rather than requiring citizens to come to the technology

  • New solution offers biometric security to mobile devices

    Aussie company offers a biometric security solution for mobile devices; a Bio-button token is authenticated by the user, and as long as the Bio-button remains in the range of the mobile device, the authentication will remain active. This means that if the phone or mobile device is stolen, lost, or moved away from the token, the pairing is disconnected and the authentication broken

  • U.K. second-generation ePassports project appears doomed

    A clause in the coalition agreement between the Conservatives and the Liberal democrats call for chopping the second generation e-Passport scheme initiated be the departing Labor government; the U.K. biometric industry may not like this, but it is not yet clear what the impact on the industry will be; depending upon the water-tightness of contracts already signed with suppliers, the ID card project could still be fundamentally redesigned, rather than scrapped in its entirety; also, many other U.K. biometric projects will continue — IDENT1, Border Agency’s visa application program, eBorders program, and various Ministry of Defense documents that use the technology

  • Aussie government agency proposes finger biometrics for background checks

    Australian government’s crime tracking agency has proposed tying fingerprints to passports and drivers licenses in an effort to reduce false identification for background checks; the plan, under high-level government talks, would reduce the time spent by law enforcement and customs agencies on sifting through possible identification matches

  • The Western Identification Network: a multi-state fingerprint identification system

    States can no avail themselves of the Automated Fingerprint Identification System (AFIS); AFIS comprises a high-speed computer system that digitizes, stores, and compares fingerprint data and images; fingerprints entered into AFIS are searched against millions of prints on file and are identified by experts from resulting candidate lists; AFIS standards have been promulgated by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Criminal Justice Information Services Division (CJIS), and the system supports member submissions to the FBI through its CJIS wide-area network (WAN) connection

  • Awareness card for vehicle-borne IEDs

    First responders may now download a card which will help them identify — and respond to — IEDs and other suspected explosives

  • Apple patents heartbeat-recognition sensors for iPhone

    Apple’s new patent will allow iPhones to identify user’s heartbeats & mood; by integrating this technology with the iPhone, the handset can authenticate the user by seamlessly picking his or her heart rate instantly as soon as they pick up their phone; no password required or tedious scanning of fingerprints or faces

  • ICE says it will automatically vet juvenile immigrants fingerprints

    In a blow to San Francisco’s sanctuary law, the fingerprints of juvenile immigrants charged with serious offenses will also be automatically forwarded to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)

  • Using behavioral biometrics for online IDs

    The federal Education Act of 2008 is driving schools to crack down on ID authenticity; it says that universities offering online programs need to put strict measures in place to make sure the students registered for those courses—and possibly receiving federal financial aid—are the same students getting credit for them

  • Zvetco secures electronic death certificate issuance

    More and more things are done on line — including issuing death certificates; there is thus a need to make sure that those who issue death certificates electronically are authorized to do so and that are who they say they are