Biometrics

National ID projects drive Asian biometrics market growth
National ID and e-passport programs drive growth of biometric market in Asia; fingerprinting remains the preferred biometric technology
- Read more
U.K. government developing London Olympics ID card
The U.K. will host the 2012 Summer Olympic games, and the government is in the process of developing what it describes as a “pretty inclusive and far-reaching” Olympics accreditation card
- Read more

Guinea selects Sagem Sécurité to ensure integrity of election
The UN has a program aiming to encourage countries to ensure the integrity of elections for their political institutions; using biometric systems to identify voters is part of the program
- Read more
Facial recognition scans to be deployed in U.K. this summer
U.K. government plans to deploy facial recognition scanners at U.K. airport this summer; scanner will allow for automatic security checks at gates
- Read more

DHS proposes biometric airport and seaport exit procedures
Moving to implement one more recommendation of the 9/11 Commission, DHS announces that by 30 June 2009 all visitors leaving the United States will have their biometric details taken and recorded
- Read more
California passes smart-gun law
Several companies are now working on embedding palm biometrics security mechanism in guns: The gun grip will store the image of the owner’s palm, and the gun will unlock only if the image of the palm holding the gun matches the stored image; California wants this mechanism in all guns sold in the state
- Read more

UK Biometrics offers new finger print reader
Newcastle-based biometric company introduces its Evolution product; company says Evolution can scan one million records per second
- Read more
Biometric empire building: L-1 Identity Solutions acquires Bioscrypt
Robert LaPenta’s L-1 has been steadily, methodically pursuing an acquisition campaign which would make the company an identification authentication superpower; latest acquisitions: Bioscrypt and the ID systems business of Digimarc
- Read more

IrisGuard awarded Jordanian bank contract
Cairo Amman Bank, the fastest growing retail bank in Jordan, will deploy U.K. company’s iris recognition technology in its seventy branches in the Middle East
- Read more
Scholar: More biometrics means more freedom
Irish scholar researching the history of biometrics and its current uses says that contrary to fears about invasion of privacy, the use of biometrics will lead to enhanced freedom (except for those who try to assume false identities)
- Read more

Sagem Sécurité to coordinate TURBINE project
TURBINE aims to develop advanced digital identity solutions, combining automatic fingerprint recognition and innovative cryptographic techniques; research efforts will focus on burying secret information inside a description of fingerprints
- Read more
Microsoft joins MIT Kerberos Consortium
Kerberos develops the widely used network authentication standard; eight years ago Microsoft was accused of subverting the standard by adding proprietary extensions; after Microsoft lost both U.S. and European anti-trust trials, company joins consortium
- Read more

Behavioral observation program questioned
TSDA has been training security officers in behavioral observation, then placed them in major U.S. airports to observe passengers and note suspicious behavior; in the past four years, 104,000 passengers were pulled out of line to answer to more serious security measures, but fewer than 700 were arrested – all on criminal, rather than terror, charges; critics are not sure the $45 million annual tab is justified
- Read more
Siemens to offer fingerprint Internet ID
To cut down on hacking of bank accounts, Siemens will introduce an Internet ID which scans the user’s fingerprints before allowing him or her access to the bank account
- Read more
NIST: On-card fingerprint match is secure, speedy
HSPD 12 mandates that by this fall most federal employees and contractors will be using federally approved PIV cards to authenticate their identity when seeking entrance to federal facilities; NIST tests two alternative authentication methods (we like the “match-on-card” approach)
- Read more

More headlines