• Critics: Trusted Traveler will allow Mexican cartels to bypass airport security

    Two weeks ago DHS announced plans the roll out of Trusted Traveler program with Mexico; under the program, Mexicans who have undergone background checks and are deemed low security risks will be able to fly into major U.S. cities and breeze through customs without being questioned by U.S. Customs agents; critics say Mexico’s drug cartels will quickly learn how to exploit loopholes in the plan by recruiting Mexicans with clean backgrounds to attain trusted traveler status, and then use them to smuggle drugs and other contraband into the United States; Mexican citizens are already eligible for expedited land border crossings through another trusted traveler program, Secure Electronic Network for Travelers Rapid Inspection (SENTRI); last week, two SENTRI trusted travelers were caught trying to bring contraband across the border into the U.S. through the SENTRI-only express border passage

  • TSA approves for-pay faster security lines at airports

    TSA has given the green light to a “trusted traveler” lane at another one of the U.S. busiest airports; the lane at Denver International Airport is operated by New York-based Alclear LLC, a company that pre-screens fliers, giving them quicker access to security checkpoints

  • China developed gait biometrics device to identify passers-by covertly

    Chinese scientists have developed a unique biometrics device, probably for the military, which uses a person’s pace to identify them covertly, according to a confidential U.S. cable leaked by WikiLeaks; the device can be covertly installed in a floor or sidewalk and is able to collect biometrics data on individuals covertly without their knowledge

  • U.K. government drops voice biometrics as anti-fraud tool

    The U.K. Department of Work & Pensions (DWP) has to contend with fraud on a massive scale — fraudulent claims are estimated at 5.2 billion Pounds (or 2.1 percent of all expenditure) a year; since 2007, DWP has spent 2.4 million Pounds on testing voice biometrics as an anti-fraud tool, but has now abandoned the trial

  • Eye-movement biometrics holds promise, but skeptics want to see more

    Each of us has a unique pattern of eye movements; an Israeli company says its eye-movement biometric system exploits this fact for a simple, hard-to-fool approach; the system tracks the way a person’s eye moves as they watch an icon roaming around a computer screen; the way the icon moves can be different every time, but the user’s eye movements include “kinetic features” — slight variations in trajectory — which are unique, making it possible to identify him; the system can also be used as a lie detector, or a drug and alcohol test

  • New opportunities for biometrics and smart cards

    The biometric microprocessor card market is growing by leaps and bounds; the microprocessor smart card market will hit 5.32 billion units shipped in 2010 and rise to 6.02 billion units in 2011; the growth owes to rising sales of e-ID cards, especially from the European residence permit, and growth in e-services for citizens

  • Biometrics revenues to reach 8.9 billion Pounds by 2015

    Worldwide revenue from biometric technology is set to treble in the coming years, reaching 8.9 billion Pounds in 2015; as well as the usual access control uses of biometrics, corporations are beginning to utilize the technology to protect their data

  • Capitalism to strengthen U.S. response capability to epidemics, bioterrorism

    The H1N1 flu pandemic highlighted critical gaps in the response capability of the United States, among them: the United States relies almost entirely on foreign suppliers for influenza vaccines and, perhaps as important, production of vaccines for a novel disease strain can take as long as six months; the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) wants to reinvent the U.S. medical countermeasures enterprise, from new doctrines for regulatory approvals to nimble, domestic manufacturing capability developed in partnership with the private sector

  • Manchester Airport biometric gate unilaterally imprisons traveler

    Manchester Airport has been testing biometric gates in one of its terminals; the gates work by scanning the passenger’s face using a camera and matching this to the image stored on the passport; if there is a match, the gates open and the passenger is allowed through, removing the need to speak to an immigration officer; the watchdog for the U.K. Border Agency says, however, that the facial recognition checks at Manchester Airport are being undermined by unreliable IT

  • Spain busts terrorist passport-stealing ring

    Spanish police have arrested seven men suspected of having links to a Pakistani militant group blamed for the 2008 Mumbai attacks; the six Pakistanis and one north African are believed to be part of European network based in Barcelona that stole passports to order for the “World Islamic Front” a group connected to al Qaeda; members of the theft ring were tasked with stealing 40 passports a month, and they stole the passports from those whose age and nationality would best enable terrorists to use the falsified documents to travel freely across borders; the group sent the passports to be forged in Thailand from where they were distributed to criminal groups around the world including radical Islamic cells

  • All airlines flying to the U.S. now gather passenger information for terror check

    All 197 airlines that fly to the United States are now collecting names, genders, and birth dates of passengers so the government can check them against terror watch lists before they fly; getting all air carriers that travel to or through the United States to provide this information marks a milestone in the government’s counterterror efforts and completes a recommendation of the special commission that studied government shortcomings before and after the 9/11 attacks

  • Fingerprinting on the go -- and on the street

    Police in North Carolina are deploying more than 100 portable fingerprinting devices to a handful of law enforcement agencies throughout the Chapel Hill region; the devices use Rapid Identification COPS Technology — software for handheld wireless devices that lets a law officer scan an individual’s fingerprints and then search the agency’s database for possible identification — all at the arrest scene

  • Aussie students develop new fingerprint technology

    Current methods for visualizing fingerprints on paper are labor-intensive and time-consuming, using toxic dyes and chemicals to stain the fingerprints or make them fluorescent; two students at the University of Technology-Sydney developed a new technology — Thermal Fingerprint Developer — which, as the name suggests, uses heat to develop the fingerprint in a matter of seconds

  • SIA releases guidelines for bringing biometrics to E-Verify

    The Security Industry Association, a trade group representing businesses in electronic and physical security, has released suggested guidelines for adding biometrics to the federal E-Verify federal resident verification program