• TSA, American Airlines launch paperless boarding

    Paperless boarding pass will allow passengers to receive boarding passes electronically on their cell phones or PDAs

  • France drops security database over privacy fears

    Criticized for ignoring serious privacy concerns, the French government scraps — for now — the implementation of massive data base; data base was to include information about French men and women as young as 13 years of age and include information on people’s health and sexual orientation

  • TWIC deadline for Florida -- and the U.S. -- looms

    Florida port workers have until 13 January 2009 to pay the $132 and register for the Transportation Worker Identification Credential card; entry to all U.S. ports will require the TWIC card as of 15 April 2009

  • U.K. passports costs rise by 39 percent to pay for biometrics

    Fingerprinting and facial scanning are costly procedures, and the Home Office attempts to recoup the cost of adding biometric data onto the document

  • Some federal agencies fail to meet secure ID October deadline

    The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) had set 27 October as the deadline for agencies to issue the cards to all federal employees and contractors; 28 percent of the federal employee workforce and 30 percent of contractors who require the cards have received credentials

  • Fingerprint "developer" can read a letter from its envelope

    U.K. researchers find that disulfur dinitride polymer turned exposed fingerprints brown, as the polymer reaction was initiated from the near-undetectable remaining residues; what is more, traces of inkjet printer ink can also initiate the polymer, allowing detectives to read a letter from the residue it left on the envelope

  • Briefly noted

    FAA selects avionics manufacturers for nextgen technology… Who will be the next DHS secretary?… Biometrics, interoperability technology help identify criminal aliens

  • Briefly noted

    Australia opens national tsunami warning center… Document requirements announced for visitors to international peace garden… European data breach laws could land in 2011… Aberdeen: Unified threat management can shave IT costs

  • Global Entry arrives in Atlanta

    U.S. citizens and legal permanent residents who pre-register for the program may use the Global Entry kiosk as an alternative to the regular passport control line

  • Use of cheap RFID chips make new U.S. passports vulnerable

    Americans can now apply for the U.S. Passport Card, which is also known as the Pass Card; the RFID chips are cheap Class One Generation Two models, which are vulnerable to cloning

  • TSA to assume responsibility for watch list matching responsibilities

    There have been many — many, many — complaints about the accuracy and effectiveness of DHS no-fly watch list; TSA takes responsibility from individual airlines for matching names on the list with passengers

  • Interpol plans facial recognition database to catch suspects

    Every year more than 800 million international travelers fail to undergo the most basic scrutiny to check whether their identity documents have been stolen, Interpol has warned; the organization plans a massive face-recognition database

  • Visa Waiver Program expanded

    Six more countries admitted to the Visa Waiver Program: the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Slovakia, and South Korea

  • Militaries eye biometric technology

    New report says that biometrics is useful not only for homeland security applications, but also for military uses in the theater; the military biometrics market thus offers investors new opportunities

  • Briefly noted

    Quantum cryptography: As awesome as it is pointless… Smiths Detection wins $26.7 million TSA order for advanced checkpoint X-ray systems… Motorola sells biometrics arm to Safran… Aussie government approves ProtectDrive for government use