An amusing satire suggesting a brand new form of biometric recognition. Here are a few key excerpts:
“Rectal scanning is almost impossible to fake”
“The probe vibrates and expands if it detects an invalid rectal signature.”
“Managers at Lockheed have suggested employees wear miniskirts or kilts to speed up the process.”
Read the whole thing here.
Over 1,000 foreigners carrying false ID cards were expelled from Singapore last year following the implimentation of their biometric border controls.
The Immigration and Checkpoints Authority (ICA) database stores information, photographs and fingerprints on 146,000 former Singapore residents since repatriated for committing offences.
Sneaking in to the city-state will become even more difficult by December when ICA officers have real-time access to the Interpol database of more than 12 million lost and stolen passports in 114 countries.
Attempts to bypass the security by burning or disfiguring the fingertip have rarely worked. It seems that a large chunk of criminals attempt to return following vice offences - prepared to risk the 2 years and $3,777 maximum penalty for illegal entry to the country. You have been warned!
Read some more over here.
Pay By Touch, the leader in integrated biometric authentication, personalized marketing and payment solutions, today announced the debut of TrueMe, the first secure, on-demand biometric authentication service on the Internet.
TrueMe gives PC users a fast, easy and secure way to identify themselves, interact and transact on the Web using their fingerprints. By simply sliding a finger on a TrueMe-certified finger sensor, users can securely access their Web-based accounts with no need to remember IDs, passwords or account numbers. TrueMe is quick and easy to use and, most importantly, safe.
“With the continued growth of identity theft, credit card fraud and phishing scams, security on the Internet is more important than ever,” said John Rogers, founder, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Pay By Touch. “TrueMe brings the security and protection of our industry-leading biometric services to the Internet for the first time, providing a new layer of privacy and convenience to PC users everywhere.”
The debut of TrueMe is a significant milestone in Pay By Touch’s continued growth and expansion into new markets. Already, more than three million Americans have enrolled in Pay By Touch’s biometric payment network through 2,400 retail locations across 44 states.
TrueMe enables businesses to provide customers, partners and employees with secure, authenticated access to their computers, desktop applications and password-protected Web sites and services such as online banking, e-commerce and Internet service providers (ISPs). TrueMe’s protection also extends to enterprise applications such as salesforce.com’s on-demand business services.
Salesforce.com, PC industry giant Lenovo(TM) and biometric security solutions provider UPEK(R) will be among the first providers supported by TrueMe, which is being demonstrated today at salesforce.com’s Dreamforce conference.* Pay By Touch selected ThinkPad notebooks for the layered security components they offer, including Lenovo’s ThinkVantage Technologies and Client Security Solution.
“When we announced AppExchange, we knew that many innovative applications would follow — from both inside and outside salesforce.com,” said Marc Benioff, Chairman and CEO, salesforce.com. “We are thrilled to see TrueMe integrated with salesforce.com’s on-demand business services. It brings an unprecedented level of security and convenience to our customers with minimal effort on their part.”
“With TrueMe, a simple touch of the finger gives Chief Security Officers the security they demand while giving users the simplicity they desire,” said Jon Siegal, Executive Vice President, Pay By Touch. “TrueMe satisfies both needs without the hassle of multiple User IDs and passwords.”
Pay By Touch certified the integrated finger sensors on select Lenovo ThinkPad(R) T60 and X60 notebooks for meeting security, reliability and support criteria. “We have already shipped more than three million notebooks with fingerprint readers and our customers are excited about the added security now available on their ThinkPads using TrueMe,” said Marc Godin, vice president of Marketing, Notebook Business Unit, Lenovo. “With the holiday gift-giving season approaching, Lenovo customers using biometrics will benefit from a level of security previously not available in the industry, and can feel confident that their financial information is protected while they shop online.”
Teaming with UPEK to Deliver a Compatible TrueMe Finger Sensor
Pay By Touch also announced today that it has teamed with UPEK to offer a TrueMe-branded and certified USB finger sensor for users that do not have sensors built in to their PCs. The Company is also certifying millions of UPEK sensors that are already embedded in laptops and USB devices to provide finger-to-server security.
“TrueMe is integrating our unique finger security solutions into a ground- breaking authentication service” said Alan Kramer, UPEK President and CEO. “The same level of hardware-based security and convenience UPEK provides to millions of users for their personal and business computers can now be extended over the Internet by creating a trusted path between businesses and their customers.”
How TrueMe Works
This piece will serve as a reminder as to the proliferation of biometrics on a consumer level. We hear so much about big money contracts, HSPD-12, border control and passports that it becomes easy to forget that biometric technology is available to everyone.
So, where would I go to find the most general unbiased listing of what people are buying in biometrics? eBay, of course! A quick search for “biometric” yields 162 items. Now that isn’t very many compared to the 203,917 items containing “tshirt”. But it’s a start.
Being the technological wonder that eBay is, we are greeted with some cleverly generated Related Searches; fingerprint lock, biometric lock, biometric safe, fingerprint, retina. This sets the scene for the majority of biometrics items we’ll find on eBay, but there are a few more interesting listings, too.
The first result is, you guessed it, a fingerprint door lock. With a Buy It Now price of $362, this lock is probably going to be snapped up by an affluent middle class businessman with cash to burn and an eye for a gizmo.
Scrolling down past a couple more door locks ranging from $9.99 to $125, we find our first biometric time clock system, courtesy of BreachFree Technology. It boasts 1700+ user capability and an RS232 connection. We even get a cutesy preview of the user interface and admin area. Forget all that though, because here’s the deal-clincher - “Quite reliable performance,” said the listing. Very reassuring - not. Offering no ballpark accuracy range, combined with a veritable admission of guilt, this may be one to avoid.
More scrollage reveals that time & attendance and fingerprint door locks are an ongoing theme. The next T&A device is more pricey at $849, but thankfully, it promises 100% accurate time clocking. At least they’re talking themselves up some.
“Oh look kids! It’s a biometric wall safe.”
“Can we pet it?”
“No, but for $299 you can secure important documents, cash and jewelry with the swipe of a finger.”
Yes, a wall safe. I’ve always wanted one; but I figured I should first try to obtain some possessions of value > the value of the safe itself. Unfortuantely, this one’s Star Trek decor would clash awfully with my plum leather suite.
After more mouse-roller spinning than expected, we finally uncover the elusive biometric USB Flash Drive. Storing up to 10 fingerprints, this device promises to keep all your important files firmly under lock and key, up to the capacity of 256MB. Now I’m sure you’ve been dying to have this answered - yes, it comes with a neck strap. All this goodness, including CD and cables, costs you $22.99. Similar flash drives without biometric protection are going for around $6, so it’s your call on how much you value your private documents. If the figure comes out over $17, then the biometric USB drive may be for you.
Wow, now here is a pretty little thang. The Fellowes Secure Touch Fingerprint Reader & Optical Mouse. The eBay listing is useless in terms of information, and a quick Amazon search shows the product has been discontinued. For the record though, accuracy is over 99%, and it does look quite cool. Supposedly once retailing at around $120, this looks useful for those who don’t want anyone finding their Internet Explorer history tab.
For those who like to spend a little more on their USB flash drives, SanDisk offers a quality 1GB biometric stick for $40. They look hot, and from my experience with SanDisk, they’ll perform even hotter.
Next up is the most expensive listing so far. Probably because the price is 1% biometrics, 99% Sony. The Vaio VGN-SZ220/B, as it’s affectionately known, is coupled with a biometric fingerprint sensor. Like on that IBM advert - “it’s called biometrics,” said the smug yuppy.
Next up is a very expensive fingerprint scanner by eBay standards - the Kronos Touch ID Terminal. The 4500 Touch ID Numeric Bar Code 10/100 Mbit Ethernet & Finger Scan module has an RRP of $3200+ according to the listing, and appears to be tailored to time & attendance applications. It looks very slick and is being offered at less than half price. Maybe a good investment for a company plagued by buddy-punching.
Here we have a biometric handreader named HandPunch. The price is currently 97 cents, which is probably more than this WWII relic is worth, judging by it’s pictures. Next!
This one is cool. I mentioned a biometric mouse earlier, but it only offered fingerprint recognition. This beauty starts at $249, and scans your iris and retina! Offering a great set of specifications on this piece of hardware, the eBay listing sure is tempting. Their table of biometric comparison rates Iris scanning as having low false acceptance rate, high speed, impossible forgery and good technology. Sounds pretty convincing to me.
On the topic of computer hardware, let’s try a keyboard. The Verifi Fingertouch Keyboard comes with a Verifi K4000 keyboard with integrated biometric fingerprint reader and Verifi Identity Manager software. Some uses are touted as secure network access, stopping identity theft and keeping personal information private. It’ll cost you at least $119 depending on how the auction pans out.
And that was that. A little over 3 pages of listings, and we’ve exhausted eBay’s biometric offerings. Is there something for everyone? Certainly, so long as you have an eBay account. Let’s hope to see a more diverse and interesting range of biometric products for the consumer - sooner rather than later!
The European Union-wide biometric database EURODAC continues to ensure effective management of the Common European Asylum System The third annual report on the activities of EURODAC was published today by the Commission. The report gives essential information on patterns of asylum seeking and illegal entry in the EU and shows that 16% of all applications in 2005 were ‘multiple applications’ – asylum claims where the same person has already made an application in the same country or in another Member State.Part of the European Union’s Common European Asylum System, EURODAC is an EU-wide fingerprint database for the comparison of the fingerprints of asylum seekers and illegal entrants, to help determine which Member State should examine an asylum application.
Vice-President Franco Frattini, Commissioner responsible for Justice, Freedom and Security highlighted that “without this Community-wide information technology, identifying aliens who had already lodged an asylum application in another Member State would be difficult, if not impossible. EURODAC is a fundamental tool to establish an efficient Common European Asylum System.
In 2005, EURODAC processed 187.223 sets of fingerprints of asylum seekers, 25.162 sets of fingerprints of people crossing the borders irregularly and 46.299 sets of fingerprints of people apprehended while illegally staying on the territory of a Member State.
Figures show that in 2005, the number of asylum applications decreased while the number of registered irregular entrants increased significantly. The report reveals that in 16% of the total number of cases, the same person had already made at least one asylum application in the same country or in another Member State (known as a multiple application). In some cases, several applications had been made across several EU Member States by the same person.
The EURODAC Central Unit which manages the central system was operational for 99.9% of the reporting period, operating 24/24 hours and 7/7 days.
The Commission will shortly issue a report on the evaluation of the Dublin system, which legally determines which Member State is responsible for the examination of an asylum application and makes arrangements for their return there, and of which EURODAC forms an essential part.
The Report is available here.