Biometrics

L-1 receives $9.6 million in new orders for HIIDE and PIER
The last twelve months have been good to L-1; in October 2008 L-1 won a contract potentially worth $250 million from the State of New York for more than 75 facilities for fingerprinting, background checks, and other data required for applications to certain jobs and state licenses; it has won several other contracts since
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Harold Schliesske: Using tactical biometrics in the theater
Schliesske, assistant product manager at the Office of the Project Manager Defense Department Biometrics’ Tactical Biometric Systems organization, helps develop technology that protects combat personnel on the ground in Iraq and Afghanistan
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U.S. government agencies increase use of biometric technology
The National Institute of Justice is evaluating the use of face recognition technologies to identify suspects and improve security and officer safety; this is but one of many biometric technologies being evaluated by U.S. government agencies
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Anti-ID groups critical of Hillingdon ID card scheme
While the debate in the United Kingdom over the national ID scheme rages, Hillingdon Borough came up with the idea to introduce a local ID card scheme; critics are unhappy
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Global Entry expanded to 13 additional U.S. airports
The Global Entry initiatives allows passengers to register their biometric information at an airport kiosk — and then go through streamlined screening process before boarding
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Behavioral observation comes to Canada's airports
Planning for the training and deployment of behavioral plainclothes security officers is to begin this fall, with a pilot project expected to roll out at a major airport in 2010
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Ditching U.K. ID cards would save £3 billion
The general election in Britain must be held by June 2010; if the Tories win, and if they stick to their promises to cancel the ID card scheme, they will save the U.K. economy over £3 billion
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Second part of Secure Flight is phased in beginning Saturday
Starting Saturday, some travelers will begin providing their birth date and sex when booking their airline reservations; Secure Flight aims to match passengers’ names against the government’s terrorism watch list
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Chinese women face ID problem after cosmetic surgery trip
A group of Chinese women traveled to South Korea for plastic surgery; when they came back, their new looks did not match their passport photos, causing confusion for airport officers
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Kemesa: Solving the identity theft problem
The ideal solution to the online identity theft problem is to not transmit personal information to Web sites in the first place; with Kemesa’s Shop Shield, personal information can not be stolen because it is never revealed during the online transaction process
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Digital certificate standard compromised by hackers
Researchers demonstrated exploits against the X.509 standard for digital certificates used by Secure Sockets Layer; Deputy Defense Secretary Robert Lentz, DOD’s chief information assurance officer, cited identity authentication as a key security challenge for the department
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TSA approves biometric security for flight crews
The Transportation Security Administration launches a pilot program that accelerates flight crew security screening in airports
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U.K. MPs have doubts about a biometrics IT system for screening students
The Home Affairs Committee looked at the role of the National Biometric Identity Service (NBIS) in student visa applications as part of a report into migration processes; universities have already voiced their concerns that the enrollment of students will depend on the untested NBIS, and the MPs say they share this concern
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New technology locks up Biometrics
Communication encryption relies on authentication being symmetric to work: the user’s password or PIN must match the password or PIN stored by the recipient (online shop, bank, etc.) to lock and unlock the data; biometric may be used for encryption — but biometrics is not a symmetric process; South African researchers now show how biometrics can nevertheless be used to make a consistent secret key for encryption
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Biometrics tunnel helps identify individuals' unique walking patterns
The University of Southampton’s biometric tunnel provides the technology to analyze the way people walk as a unique identifier; university researchers have developed a technology which captures the unique walking patterns, and then characterizes and records them to a database
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