Biometrics

MorphoTrak receives secure driver license contract award from North Carolina
The $47.5 million contract calls for the company to supply the state with MorphoTrak’s Secure Credentials Center for identity assurance; the company will implement its 3D Photo IDTM technology, which features laser-engraved three dimensional photo-images
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Schlage, Solero Systems form technology partnership
A manufacturer of contactless smart credentials and readers and a developer of identification and access solutions have formed a technology partnership to bring advanced identification and access solutions to customers
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Puerto Rico overhauls birth-certificate systems; will annul 5 million birth certificates
More than 40 percent of all passport fraud cases in the United States start with a stolen Puerto Rican birth certificate; identity thieves have targeted Puerto Ricans because Puerto Rican names provide the perfect cover for Hispanic illegal immigrants entering the United States and are worth as much as $6,000 on the black market; the documents are so valuable that drug addicts trade them for a fix; the Puerto Rican government has decided to change all that: current Puerto Rican birth certificates will no longer be valid after 30 September; between now and then, all Puerto Ricans will have to apply for more secure birth documents
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"IPhone on Steroids" to bolster law enforcement biometric capabilities
Plymouth County, Massachusetts became the first in the country to deploy the Mobile and Wireless Multi-Modal Biometric Offender Recognition and Information System (MORIS). The system is part of a national network, designed to help law enforcement agencies keep track of sex offenders, gang members, inmates, and illegal aliens
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Obama emphasizes identity management
The Obama administration is planning to promote identity management throughout the government; Howard Schmidt: “The ability to interact with the government in a very secure manner, where privacy and civil liberties are protected and you can only do that with some of the things you look at from an identity management perspective”
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Sector Report for Tuesday, 22 June 2010: Authentication / Biometrics
This report contains the following stories.
* Government plans new biometric passport rollout

* Could-based voice biometrics e-commerce platform launched

* Fingerprint Security Briefcase keeps papers safe
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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
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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
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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
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"Zero knowledge" keeps secrets you put on the net safe
Intrigued by topics that touch on mathematics, computer science, physics and neuroscience, Professor Shafrira Goldwasser has made far-reaching contributions to keeping your data safe on-line; the solution she discovered used randomized methods of encoding, which came to underlie all future protocols for secure Internet transactions and data privacy
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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
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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
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Sector Report for Tuesday, 8 June 2010: Authentication / Biometrics
This report contains the following stories.
* Biometrics and cloud computing

* New solution offers biometric security to mobile devices

* Australia looks at facial recognition for law enforcement

* Animetrics provides facial recognition systems to Massachusetts law enforcement

* Biometric ID card contractors escape the U.K. government's axe

* Top biometrics students invited to contend for industry awards
Plus 3 additional stories
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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
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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
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