Monday, June 16, 2014

Is an Expanded Biometric Immigration System Worth $7 Billion?

The U.S. checks fingerprints for people entering the country. What about when they leave? (The Atlantic)
The advantage of biometrics would be more accurate matches and less fraud. Spelling blunders, multiple identities, and other data errors all make biographic data more susceptible to error, according to the report. For example, recently it was discovered that Boston Marathon bomber Tamerlan Tsarnaev’s name was misspelled on a manifest list for a flight to Russia, resulting in the FBI missing a lead while investigating his terrorist ties.

France: Banking group looks toward multifactor authentication

France's national interbank network, Groupement des Cartes Bancaires CB, is currently evaluating the use of biometry in payment transactions (TMCnet)
The first CB approval will involve the association of biometry and a chip integrated into a keyfob. Integration of the chip into a micro-SD card of a mobile phone is also being studied. Highly convenient, the user keeps the keyfob or telephone on his or her person, for example in a pocket or handbag, without needing to present it physically to pay or withdraw cash.

Monday, June 9, 2014

India's UID project is reeling

Aadhaar enrolment procedure suffers setback, agencies halt the process (Economic Times)

It appears that the entities that collect enrollments and then charge the government for them are uniting to resist requirements that they do their job better. It's also worth recalling that some of these agencies have behaved quite badly and at least one has been willing to create enrollments for vegetables, so standards could probably be higher.
N.S.A. Collecting Millions of Faces From Web Images (New York Times)


Kyrgyz government examines Mongolia’s experience on collection of biometric dataMongolia is issuing biometric "chip-on-card" ID's




Apparently, the biometrics industry isn't immune to software patent disputes

Friday, June 6, 2014

HUNGARY: Budapest airport begins biometric checks — Matching live scan with fingerprint stored on passport chip


PAKISTAN: Election Commission has announced electronic voting machines for next general elections in 2018 — Biometrics are mentioned but the modality isn't specified.


CANADA: Police charge three with trying to bribe Indian officials to secure a $100 million contract for a biometric security system — Biometrics can be a great corruption-fighting tool but they're hard to apply to the procurement process itself.

Wednesday, June 4, 2014

Using biometrics to prevent fraud in assistance to Malawian farmers

Malawi to move from coupon to biometric system in fertiliser subsidy (Nyasa Times)
...[I]n the next agricultural season, government will introduce a finger print system that will only give opportunity to the targeted beneficiary to access the cheap farm inputs.

How to fool a finger vein sensor

Swiss researchers found a way to spoof finger veins (idiap)
It's pretty convoluted and involves some feedback from the sensor that would likely be unavailable in a real-world deployment, but it worked.

See video: