A glossary of biometric terms

A handy reference: glossary of biometric terms available at TechTarget.com

Understanding the Three Factors of Authentication

InformIT from Pearson Education

Authentication is the first step in access control and there are three common factors used for authentication: something you know, something you have, and something you are. This article provides you with good understanding of the three factors of authentication and how they can be used together with multifactor authentication.

findBIOMETRICS Year in Review 2010

findBIOMETRICS Publishes Biometric Industry Year in Review with Interviews from 63 International Experts on 2010 Performance and 2011 Potential (findBIOMETRICS.com)

Peter O'Neill does great work at findBIOMETRICS.
The report contains answers to the most pressing questions in the biometrics industry from the people closest to the action.

Report Forecasts the Global Biometric Market To Grow At A CAGR of Around 22% between 2011 and 2013

PRInside.com Press Release
Purchase from Research and Markets

At the regional level, North America dominates the global biometric market and is expected to account for a market share of over 30% in 2010. The Asian, Middle East and Africa region are also expected to emerge as growing markets for biometrics by 2013. In fact, the Gulf and African countries have already taken several initiatives and started various biometric programs.

Australian Government launches security research network

ZDNet.com.au

Nominated researchers must be members of the Research Network Secure Australia and clear its professional background checks.

Deputy national security advisor Margot McCarthy said the network will tighten coordination on matters of national security in the public and private sectors.

This is a good idea.

Creating a directory of the pre-vetted security experts available to a country should foster the development of good working relationships within the security sector which should in turn make for better responses in a security crisis.

The directory is online here and contains rich contact information such as phone numbers and (sometimes multiple) email addresses.

If you're in Australia and have acute need of an expert in biometrics and securing biometric templates, give Boztas Serder a call or shoot Calic Dragana an email.

Security is about people and national security is no exception.

Goodbye ID cards - is it time to say hello to identity banks?

From ComputerWeekly.com
Much of the recent news about biometrics has been coming from the UK, with the new government there having scrapped the planned biometric national ID card and other identity management functions. Much of the news is written, of course, from a political perspective. If the personal is political, what can be more political than one's identity?
Bryan Glick at ComputerWeekly.com understands that the rejection of a statist, top-down approach does not mean that identity management systems are unnecessary or that all proposed systems will be rejected by a free public.

But there is a growing recognition that an increasingly internet-enabled society will need some form of electronic identity verification system to tackle identity fraud and provide the confidence needed to transact securely online, especially as more public services are provided over the web.

Glick then draws attention to a 2008 report by Sir James Crosby, then at HM Treasury, entitled Challenges and Opportunities in Identity Assurance (.pdf). The 47-page report contains a breadth of information that makes it a great introduction for how to begin thinking about the challenges associated with large-scale biometric identity management deployments. It is very accessible and deserves to be read widely.