• Pakistan launches new, centralized biometric database

    Using $13 million in U.S. aid, and Lockheed Martin’s technology, the Pakistani government launches a new fingerprint database to allow police in the country’s provinces more quickly to identify criminals and terrorists

  • New ID requirement go into effect along U.S. border

    Beginning Thursday, U.S. and Canadian citizens crossing the border between the two countries will have to show a passport, passport card, or enhanced driver’s license before allowing to cross; business leaders worry this will have a chilling effect on local economies along the border

  • Manchester airport installs first-in-U.K. iris scan access control

    The majority of airports around the world use access control cards to regulate the movement of people, but these typically require human presence at each entry point; the 25,000 staff at Manchester airport will now be using iris scans to enter restricted areas; double-door access system governed by iris recognition cameras

  • FBI takes biometrics database proposal to U.K.

    FBI, U.K. National Policing Improvement Agency in talks over the U.K. joining the FBI’s ambitious Server in the Sky database project; new database, in which the FBI plans to invest some $1 billion, will track down the world’s most wanted criminals and terrorists

  • IBG's teleconference on identity fraud and biometrics

    The staggering costs incurred by commercial institutions, governments, and consumers as a result of identity fraud have led to an increased emphasis on secure authentication and identification solutions; this means more opportunities — but also more obstacles

  • Fingerprint leads biometric technologies among the security-conscious

    New biometric technologies emerge, but fingerprint biometrics is quickly becoming a data security ‘must have’ across multiple vertical markets as the convenience, power, and versatility of the technology become apparent

  • Airport screeners use black lights to inspect ID cards

    TSA screeners at about 400 U.S. airports have began checking IDs with hand-held black lights; black lights help screeners inspect ID cards by illuminating holograms, typically of government seals, which are found in licenses and passports

  • Unisys awarded CBP $62 million RFID reader contract

    This year, various forms of U.S. IDs will be equipped with vicinity RFID technology; DHS selects Unisys to install RFID readers at the 39 busiest U.S. land border ports of entry

  • Atlanta's Hartsfield second in U.S. to collect ten fingerprints

    DHS begins collecting ten fingerprints from international visitors at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport; Washington Dulles airport began doing so in late November; eight additional U.S. airports to implement ten-fingerprint requirement in 2008

  • Generation ID: Worries about kiddyprinting

    There is Generation X and Generation Y; now there is Generation ID: Thousands of children across the U.K. have had their fingerprints and DNA taken without explicit informed parental consent; children — and privacy — advocates say this is dangerous

  • General Dynamics wins $100 million passport card contract

    The Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative (WHTI) will allow U.S. residents to travel by land and sea to Canada, Mexico, the Caribbean, and Bermuda using a passport card rather than a traditional passport (travel by air, and travel to other countries, would still require a passport); General Dynamics wins contract to produce the cards

  • L-1 to acquire biometric access control specialist Bioscrypt

    L-1 continues its expansionthrough-acquisition campaign; the latest acquisition is Candian biometrics specialist Bioscrypt; the acquisition would give L-1 a position in both the biometric physical and logical access control spaces as well as far more exposure to the commercial market than it currently has

  • FBI in a $1 billion effort to build world's largest biometric database

    FBI servers occupy an underground facility the size of two football fields; the organization’s database now contains 55 million digital prints; the plan is not only to increase this number, but also add palm patterns, iris patterns, face shapes, scars, and data on people’s voices and walking patterns

  • FIRST LEGO League Ohio State championship tournament

    FIRST LEGO will hold its annual robotic tournament this weekend on the campus of Ohio’s Wright State University; 48 teams of 9-14 year-olds will compete on research projects, teamwork, robot design, robot programming, and robot performance

  • Biometric technology helps microfinancing in Asia

    Banks in Indonesia and India have emerged as the frontrunners in deploying advanced technologies to grow their microfinance businesses; biometric technology is particularly useful in areas with low literacy rates, as customers no longer have to rely upon signatures or filling out documents