Identity authentication

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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Police to use DNA "mugshots" as a predictive tool to narrow search
Scientist say that rather than simply try to match DNA to individuals already in their database, DNA should be used to suggest what a suspect might look like
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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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Opponents of Israeli Biometric Law: "It's a Step to a True Police State"
Debate heats up in Israel over the creation of a national biometric database; the law empowers the Interior Ministry to set up a database that would include biometric identification information on every Israeli citizen
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Napolitano highlights differences between Real ID and PASS ID
DHS secretary Napolitano, in her previous post a governor of Arizona, opposed the Real ID Act and the mandates it imposes on states; now, as DHS secretary, she is charge of implementing the act; Napolitano offers the PASS ID program as a compromise
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RFID-enabled official IDs raise privacy fears
More and more government documents which U.S. citizens are now required to present at border crossings and entry points — e-passports, electronic PASS cards, enhanced driver’s licenses — are equipped with RFID tags so they can easily be scanned by readers; trouble is, they can be scanned through a pocket, backpack, or purse from thirty feet, opening the door for a digital identity pickpocketing
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