True cybersecurity requires a conceptual shift

The user knows nothing: Rethinking cybersecurity

This position — that the adversary knows your system as well as you do, if not better, as soon as it is stood up — while extreme, led to the creation of large number factorization, the basis for all modern encryption, from PGP to RSA tokens. Under these encryption schemes, as long as the key is kept private, someone can know everything about how the security system works and still not be able to crack it.

To get to a place of true cybersecurity, another stark innovation in thinking is needed. What is needed is an Inverse Shannon's Maxim: the user knows nothing.

Coincidentally, our CTO and I were having a conversation along these lines just yesterday. It's a thrill a minute at SecurLinx!

Quick links

South Africa: Banks piling into biometric security (The Citizen)


From the Interpol World Conference:
Security experts call for tighter international border control (Albawaba News)


UK:
New biometric permit cards required for long-term stays (Cayman Compass)

Israel: Interior Minister foresees mandatory biometric ID

Erdan wants advanced biometric ID card mandatory for all Israelis (Jerusalem Post)

All citizens will have to gradually move to biometric identification, Interior Minister Gilad Erdan said Monday, submitting a report on the system’s pilot run to the cabinet and Knesset.

“Smart biometric documentation that cannot be counterfeited, together with use of the biometric data will allow a full security and defense package for Israeli citizens’ identities and will balance our responsibility to ensure their security with our requirement to defend their privacy,” Erdan stated.

Obviously, his stance isn't universally popular, but read the whole thing. There are a lot of good bits of information there including this one: Israel is the OECD country with the most counterfeited passports.

India: Using biometrics to protect vulnerable children

Aadhaar goes to orphanages, joins war on child trafficking (Bangalore Mirror)

Aadhaar's comprehensive database that comprises iris (retina scan) and biometric (fingerprint) information is hoped to aid enforcement agencies find missing children, curb human trafficking and check illegal adoptions. Aadhaar enrolments have begun in Karnataka for children in child care institutes run by the state government's Department of Women and Child Development. Nearly 4,000 kids and youngsters are in care of state homes and will get identity cards.

A couple of notes:

Aadhaar means "foundation." An alternate name for the Aadhaar Project is the UID Project for Universal ID.

In the quoted passage above, "child care institutes" are orphanages rather than the child care centers some readers may be more familiar with.

Forecast: Global biometrics market CAGR 14% through 2020

Global Biometrics Market Forecast & Opportunities 2020 (TechSci Research) — The global biometrics market is projected to register a CAGR of around 14% until 2020.

The attorney suing Facebook

A lawyer Silicon Valley loves to hate (Seattle Times)

Though one tech financier calls Jay Edelson “a leech tarted up as a freedom fighter,” the Chicago class-action lawyer has had an impact on the privacy issues that the Internet has made so pervasive.

Biometric tech for bikers wins Singapore award (Planet Biometrics)

Already hosting soe 40,000 enrolees, the BIKES system facilitates self- immigration clearance at designated lanes. Designed for speed and accuracy, the process takes under 16 seconds.

Singapore has been one of the more enthusiastic adopters of border biometrics.

The question: when will biometrics take over from passwords? (The Guardian) — Four smart takes on large-scale customer-facing authentication.

USAA and customers both embrace biometrics

Biometric Innovation Boosts USAA Fiscal Results, Customer Satisfaction (Mobile ID World)

In a synopsis, the company credited its strong performance – which saw its net worth increasing by ten percent, reaching $27 billion – at least in part to “innovations such as secure facial and voice recognition on mobile devices”.

Tying in to the post below, the article mentions that the USAA customers who use it really love Apple Pay.

A sceptical look at Apple's Touch ID for banking

Why RBS and NatWest were wrong to trust Apple on biometric security (Information Age)

Here, Richard Walters, GM and VM at Intermedia, expands on Whaley’s criticism, claiming that the biometric technology offered by Apple is not secure enough to support sensitive activities like mobile banking.

Very much worth reading in its entirety.

News you can use

Florida man, initially thought dead, arrested after facial recognition match (Ars Technica)

A Florida businessman accused of falsifying his death overseas was located and then arrested by federal authorities after facial recognition software returned a match to his face in passport records. Jose Salvador Lantigua now faces one federal count of providing a false statement on a passport application.

Though never easy, it's getting harder to fake your own death.

Illinois: More on the Facebook facial recognition lawsuit

Facebook lawsuit calls collection of biometrics data illegal (Biometrics Update)

According to the Illinois Biometrics Information Privacy Act, it is unlawful to acquire biometric data without first providing the subject with a written disclaimer that details the purpose and length of the data collection, and without the subject’s written consent.

Read the whole thing.

Photos aren't simply records of something that happened, mere mementos, anymore. They're search terms and search results. That has implications for both public and private entities who collect and store images of people. Ordinary snapshots are now biometric data.

Now, about those Florida school yearbooks...

New Nealand: Biometrics allow for the return of ten-year passports

Prime Minister John Key: 10-year passports in six months (New Zealand Herald)

New Zealand moved to five-year passports in 2005 in response to security concerns sparked by the 2001 terrorist attacks in the US...

In addition, developments in biometric technology have allayed concerns about passport fraud and counterfeiting.

Facial recognition technology is changing how we think about photography

SCOTLAND: Cash-strapped police spend £700k on UK database (The Scotsman)

The MPs noted a “worrying” lack of government oversight and regulation of the use of biometrics by public bodies.

It called for day-to-day independent oversight of the police use of all biometrics, and for the Biometrics Commissioner’s jurisdiction to be extended beyond DNA and fingerprints.

ILLINOIS: Does Facebook's facial recognition technology violate privacy laws? (ABA Journal)

The lawsuit, filed Wednesday, argues that the social media company was required by Illinois law to inform Carlo Licata in writing that it would collect and retain his “biometric data,” and specify when it would destroy that data.

Both Facebook and the police in Scotland have been collecting photos of individuals for years but facial recognition technology changes things. Photos aren't simply records of something that happened, mere mementos, anymore. They're search terms and search results.

That has implications for both public and private entities who collect and store images of people.

Ordinary snapshots are now biometric data. The news pieces above both show long-standing policies being scrutinized in the context of reliable facial recognition technology.

Face rec vs. the knockout game

Philadelphia teen arrested in filmed knockout punch of SEPTA passenger (New York Daily News)

Facial-recognition software reportedly helped collar a 16-year-old boy in Monday's violent Philadelphia subway attack that left a 60-year-old man knocked out cold and suffering a broken jaw.

More fingerprint readers for mobiles

OnePlus Two release date, specs: highly advanced biometric scanner (Christian Today) — OnePlus's hardware naming convention is sure is going to be fun!


HTC One M9+ teaser images point to QHD display and fingerprint scanner (Trusted Reviews)

Don't forget the biometrics

Denmark issued 10,947 passports without fingerprints (Customs Today)

The different municipalities of Denmark issued flawed passports without fingerprints, stated by the Customs authority. Earlier the Customs authorities discovered the mistake and informed the affect municipalities. Passports issued from 44 municipalities after the date of February 2nd are missing biometric fingerprints due to an error made by...

I wonder how the oversight was discovered.

Apple granted patent for mobile device face unlock

Apple wants you to be able to unlock your iPhone with a selfie (Business Insider)

There's no guarantee Apple will implement the technology - the Cupertino company obtains numerous patents that it never uses. These can be precautionary, or intended to trip up or block competitors. But as the industry increasingly looks to kill traditional passwords, selfie-secured iPhones sounds surprisingly plausible.

Samsung looks to mobile iris biometrics

Iris Biometrics to Appear in Samsung Mobile Devices (Mobile ID World)

SRI International’s Iris on the Move (IOM) technology is about to see a number of integrations into mobile products. The company’s iris-scanning technology has been licensed to Samsung and will initially appear in the Samsung Galaxy Tab Pro 8.4 tablet before finding other integrations.

A survey of African biometric elections

Dirty hands: Why biometric voting fails in Africa - and it doesn't matter in the end (Mail & Guardian Africa)

There's so much going on in the article that I couldn't settle on a key paragraph to set it up. Long-time readers will find some of the details familiar, especially the parts dealing with Kenya and Ghana.

ASUS ZenFone 3 Will Have a Fingerprint Recognition Sensor - Rumor (Softpedia) — It looks like pretty much all smartphone manufacturers will be offering models with fingerprint sensors soon.

Mobiles as access control tokens

Mobile Access Control: Exploiting the BYOD Trend (IFSEC Global)

With today’s mobile access technologies, smart devices can be used as universal credentials for accessing multiple buildings, IT systems and other applications using NFC and bluetooth. These devices provide users with extremely convenient vehicles for opening doors and performing other tasks that require the presentation of a secure credential.

There's a lot of good information in the linked article and it's written by the director of Strategic Business Development and Innovation at HID, and you'd expect that they've been putting a lot of thought toward what access control is going to look like after prox cards.

Challenges abound in Nigeria's biometric election

Smart Card Readers: INEC’s excuse (Vanguard)

The spokesperson, who admitted this was not the only flaw identified in the new electoral process deployed during the election, said the Commission had taken note of the challenges and would effect corrections in subsequent elections to ensure that the exercise was more credible and acceptable.

While the article deals with the technical challenges of the biometric technology, and the mixed response to those, Nigeria confronts other challenges that make proper elections difficult regardless of the technology used for casting votes.

Pakistan linking fingerprints to mobile SIM cards

Pakistani Mobile Users Have 10 Days To Register Their Fingerprints Or Lose Their Connection (Inquisitr)

To counter the growing menace of terrorism, the Pakistan government has ordered all mobile service companies to acquire fingerprint scans of their subscribers before April 15. Subscribers failing to do so will get their mobile subscription terminated.

Forecast: Mobile biometrics revenue $3.5 billion by 2024

Starting from a base of $249 million 2015, global mobile biometrics revenue is forecast to reach $3.5 billion by 2024, with cumulative revenue for the 10-year period totaling $17.5 billion. (EFY Times)

Biometrics for mobile devices have finally reached a tipping point. The march began with the release of the Apple iPhone in 2007 and later the iPad, each subsequently matched by Android competitors. These smartphones and tablets finally have enough processing power and hardware capabilities to put biometrics directly into their users' hands. Biometrics, whether for mobile devices or large stationary systems, typically perform one of two functions: authentication, proving that someone is who they claim to be, or identification, figuring out who someone is. Nearly all consumer-facing use cases are authentication and nearly all identification uses are enterprise-facing, especially government use cases. Somewhere in the middle, financial institutions are offering their users the chance to authenticate to online banking systems with their voices or with their eyes, in place of keying a personal identification number (PIN).

Huawei adding fingerprint hardware to mobiles?

Huawei Ascend P8 leaks point to integrated fingerprint scanner (Trusted Reviews)

Although we can’t say fir certain that the P8 will play host to a fingerprint scanner, the large rectangular cut-out on the phone’s rear looks markedly similar to the fingerprint reader on the oversized Huawei Ascend Mate 7.

Huawei's customer-facing products have really come on strong in the last few years.

The Slings and Arrows of outrageous Passwords

When your body becomes your password, the end of the login is nigh (Phys.org)

The good news for us password jugglers is that there is now a greater imperative behind building higher levels of security into systems from the outset, rather than trying to add it on afterwards, and that new and better ways of doing this are being expored.

...'Tis a consummation
Devoutly to be wished.

Deep learning for better face-rec

Google: Our new system for recognizing faces is the best one ever (Fortune)

At first we’ll see systems like Google’s FaceNet and Facebook’s aforementioned system (dubbed “DeepFace”) make their way onto those company’s web platforms. They will make it easier, or more automatic, for users to tag photos and search for people, because the algorithms will know who’s in a picture even when they’re not labeled. These types of systems will also make it easier for web companies to analyze their users’ social networks and to assess global trends and celebrity popularity based on who’s appearing in pictures.

CyberSec: So hot right now

Why Venture Capitalists Love Security Firms Right Now (MIT Technology Review)

Venture capitalists poured a record $2.3 billion into cybersecurity companies in 2014, a year marked by frequent reports of hacks on high-profile companies. Yearly investment in cybersecurity startups been on the rise for several years now, and is up 156 percent since 2011, according to CB Insights. The trend will likely continue, as 75 percent of CIOs surveyed by Piper Jaffray said they would increase spending on security in 2015.

Bridge Day biometric ballyhoo

[ed: OK, ballyhoo is probably too strong, but the alliteration demanded it.]

Bridge Day panel backtracks on security plan (Beckley Register-Herald)

Bridge Day 2015 vendors, BASE jumpers and rappellers may be able to choose this year to either pay for a background check with a contracted security company or submit to a biometric fingerprint scan for free.

The Bridge Day Commission in Fayette County passed a motion Wednesday that adds the option of the background check. The check would be conducted by a contracted, third party security company, said Bridge Commission Chairwoman Sharon Cruikshanks.

The cost of the background check will be $12 to $35, depending on which of the three companies the commission contracts.

"Biometric scans are a free option," Cruikshanks said.

This one is especially of local interest here in West Virginia. Not mentioned in the article is that this year’s Bridge Day Festival takes place on Saturday, October 17, 2015.

Background checks became a requirement for vendors and jumpers after 2001. The fingerprint innovation appears to be meant to make the process easier by requiring less text-based identifying information from people undergoing the background check.

More information and the counter-argument to these measures can be read here: Fingerprinting Plan For Bridge Day 2015 Forces Jumper Boycott.

Oh, and if you're unfamiliar with Bridge Day...

 

...it's something.

US Customs pilots face-rec for returning citizens

US customs launches biometric pilot at airports (Security Document World)

“The facial recognition software provides the [CBP Officers] with a match confidence score after the e-passport chip is scanned and the photo is taken. The score is generated by algorithms designed to detect possible imposters.”

A one-to-one search comparing the passport photo to the person standing at the customs kiosk is about as simple as a facial recognition deployment gets.

The only complicating factor is where they get the photo. If they use the photo physically present on the passport's photo page, they will probably want to contend with the security marks and holograms somehow while processing the image for matching. If they want to use the photo stored electronically on the passport's internal chip, as it appears they do, they'll need some specialized hardware that retrieves the photo and the issue of "broken" passports will arise. Still, as far as country-level biometric deployments go, this one isn't too daunting.

In a post-pilot phase, it may be desirable to use the passport number to pull the photo from a State Department database and compare that to the passport image and a live image of the person presenting their travel documents.

Hello, Windows. Microsoft does biometrics.

Windows 10 News: New Authentication, New Storage Savings, And Launch Timeframe (AnandTech)

Microsoft will be taking a two pronged approach to authentication. The first is the actual authentication. Windows Hello will work with several biometrics, including fingerprint scanners, facial recognition, and iris scanning, as examples. This will be used in conjunction with hardware cryptography on the device to unlock the device. Microsoft is claiming false unlocks at around one in one hundred thousand. Fingerprints are well known, but the facial recognition will not rely on just a webcam, but rather will require new hardware such as the Intel RealSense 3D Cameras to ensure that it is a real person in front of the device and not just a photo. The unlock is tied to the actual device, and none of the unlock information is ever sent off of the device. Existing fingerprint readers can be used with Windows Hello.

Alipay with face

Alipay to Use Facial Recognition Biometrics (Find Biometrics)

The announcement came by way of Jack Ma, the CEO of Alipay’s parent company Alibaba, who provided a few details in a speech at the Cebit trade fair in Germany.

Ma explained the development as a solution to the difficulties associated with online paymetns, which he called “a big headache,” adding, “You forget your password, you worry about your security.” He went on to say that in its facial recognition system, Alipay will offer users “a new technology.”

Yahoo allows for mobile-device-as-token to replace email passwords

Yahoo Mail Now Accessible Without Password (Latinos Post)

"You log into your Yahoo account using your normal passwords. In the security settings, you turn on on-demand passwords and register your phone. Next time you try to login, the password field is replaced by a button that says 'send my password,' and the company texts a four-character password to your phone."

There are, however, critics of this approach. See Yahoo’s attempt to kill off passwords raises security concerns at Computer Weekly.

Biometrics By Market (Security Info Watch) — Phil Scarfo, Vice President of Biometrics Global Marketing for HID Global, gives his take on the near-term future of biometrics in banking, healthcare, retail, higher education, transportation, government ID, and the corporate office.

UAE building out border biometrics

UAE will launch full biometric scanning systems at borders soon (Tnooz)

The United Arab Emirates is set to become one of the most technically advanced countries when it comes to border control. The Emirates will deploy a series of biometric e-gates at all entry points while also working to gather more biometric data to add to the fingerprints currently tracked in its biometric database.

The UAE is already one of the most eager adopters of border biometrics. That doesn't look to be changing any time soon.

Free Frost & Sullivan webinar next Tuesday

Biometrics Key to Future Growth in Healthcare, Retail and Financial Markets (Film Imaging)

Join Frost & Sullivan's upcoming complimentary webinar, "The Future of Biometrics," to understand the potential of the market and its impact on current businesses. Industry leaders should attend this webinar to learn how biometrics will boost convergence and growth in other markets.

Looks interesting.

Forecast: Global Government Biometric Systems Market

The Global Government Biometric Systems Market 2015-2025 (Market Reports Store)

Key Findings
◾The global biometric systems market is estimated to value US$4.4 billion in 2015 and increase at a CAGR of 8.70% during the forecast period, to reach a peak of US$10.2 billion by 2025.

◾The market is expected to be dominated by North America, followed by Asia-Pacific and Europe.

◾Fingerprint recognition is expected to account for the largest share of expenditure in the global Government Biometric Systems market going forward, followed by facial recognition and Iris.

That Compounded Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) is probably one of the lowest I've ever seen in the biometrics sector. It, however, doesn't come as much as a surprise. The number of government customers is pretty much capped at around 200. Governments were some of the earliest adopters of biometric solutions, so most of the 200 potential customers are already in the market. Prices paid by these customers, generally, should be falling or stable. So, there are a whole host of reasons for this low estimate for growth in the government biometrics sector.

Jury awards $150K to employee who feared scanner as “Mark of the Beast” (Overlawyered - CATO) — It appears the settlement was derived from missed wages due to early retirement for refusing to use the biometric scanner, but still.

Visit Oman

Oman Prepares for Tourism Spike With Technology to Improve Border Crossings (Skift)

Tourism in Oman, Skift’s Pick for top destination of 2015, is booming, with an investment program by the Sultanate of Oman’s slated to attract 12 million visitors by 2020. Passenger traffic at Muscat International Airport has grown 329% since 2007, reaching 9 million passengers since 2014.

The comprehensive program consists of a “layered approach to border control,” giving the Royal Oman Police an efficient and flexible visa processing and security clearance process, including the issuance of eVisas.

I want to go.

Database hacks stoke demand for customer-facing biometrics

As hacking grows, biometric security gains momentum (Bizcommunity)

With hackers seemingly running rampant online and millions of users compromised, efforts for stronger online identity protection - mainly using biometrics - are gaining momentum...

It's true. The recent hacks have focused attention on biometrics. The spotlight, however, has fallen on consumer-level biometric applications. That's fine by us, but the recent high profile hacks haven't been perpetrated by hackers using customer credentials to gain access to systems. That kind of hack is hugely inconvenient for individual users, but it doesn't make the news.

Most of the big, news-making hacks involve taking huge repositories of data that can be sold wholesale to organized criminals who sell the information on to the retail crooks who perpetrate their fraud using the individual accounts.

We have argued for years that the first, best place to apply biometrics to the problem of large-scale data theft is at the database level.

From an organizational point of view, for many many service providers, allowing customers and users to protect their individual accounts with passwords, exposes the organization as a whole to minimal risk. Some relatively predictable number of users who use passwords will choose poor passwords, some will become victims of phishing scams. If the costs of sorting these cases out are less than the costs associated with burdening all users with more onerous security protocols, then the password is the appropriate solution. But at some point, all databases of user/customer information should be protected with biometric access control methods because, while having occasional users pick weak passwords or get tricked into giving them away is one thing, hackers making off with the entire database of user/password information is something else altogether. Requiring biometric verification of all human database Administrator logins would go a long way to lowering the biggest risk of passwords: their wholesale theft. In many ways the Admin level is the perfect point to introduce these more rigorous security protocols. There aren't (or shouldn't be) too many Admins, so the inconvenience falls on as few individuals as possible. Admins are tech savvy, so they should be able to adapt to the new security environment quickly. They should have an understanding of why the extra step is worth the effort. It's their responsibility to keep the keys of the kingdom. Perhaps most compelling, they're the ones on the hot seat when the CEO is out apologizing to all and sundry following a data breach.

Granted, after a hack, having biometrics there to protect individual accounts should change the retail fraudster's Return on Investment (ROI) calculations. With biometrics it should be harder for him to turn the user information into money. Still the Benjamin Franklin axiom that “an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure” would seem to carry the day here.

Biometric Voter Registration Underway In Tanzania (Anadolu Agency)

Florida: Biometrics as a differentiator for luxury condos

Muse condo tower preps for groundbreaking, 60 percent sold (The Real Deal)

The developer plans to include robotic parking, facial recognition software in the elevators, biometric safes and a 75-inch in-wall television for every unit.

Security and Service

Concerns raised over mandatory fingerprinting for India visas (Travel Weekly)

The High Commission of India states on its website that, after outsourcing the process to a company called VFS, all applicants will need to be physically present at India Visa and Consular Services centres to submit an application and biometric data.

It says: “Biometric data collection, including fingerprint data and facial imagery will be a mandatory requirement for all visa applicants soon. As a result, all visa applicants will need to first apply online and, thereafter, be physically present (mandatorily) at India Visa and Consular Services centres, by appointment, for submission of visa application and biometric data enrolment.”

All security applications must strike a balance between the effectiveness of the security measures and the needs of the entity seeking enhanced security. As anyone who has ever seen a waste basket propping open an office door could tell you, better security usually requires sacrifices to efficiency. More security with more convenience is a tall order.

The article linked above highlights a case where the enhanced security of biometric visas for travelers to India from the UK has made the visa application process more complex and time consuming. In one sense, it's bound to. Collecting more information takes more time. In the India visa case, however, it is taking a whole lot more time. So much more that people involved in Indian tourism are growing worried.

The unfortunate irony is that their ability to increase security and convenience at the same time is one of the things that make biometrics such a disruptive technology.

Biometrics for the financial "last mile"

Kenya: Biometric technology eases banking in rural areas (KBC) — Kenyans in rural areas can now open and get access to their bank accounts with ease following the roll out of a biometric technology...

Somalis panic as cash flow dries up after US remittance lifeline cut

Somalia's remittance crisis has been intensifying for years. Britain's Barclays Bank closed its accounts with Dahabshiil, the largest Somali money transfer company, in 2014.

In Australia, Westpac, the only bank partnering with Somali remittance companies, is due to close their accounts at the end of March, the report said.

"We are just lurching from crisis to crisis", said Ed Pomfret, Oxfam's Somalia campaign manager. "These governments need to take action."

Britain has been working with the World Bank on a "Safer Corridor" initiative to tighten the scrutiny of Somali money transfers through measures such as biometric identity cards for recipients in Somalia.

The "last mile" problem is usually reserved for describing the challenges of connecting retail customers with physical infrastructures such as plumbing, electricity or wired communications.

It's also a real challenge in connecting recipients of aid and remittances to the global financial system. In the Somali case above, the global financial system appears to end at Somali money transfer companies. The Kenya efforts (linked above) and others, such as India's UID project, are two examples of how people are using biometrics to extend the benefits of the global financial system to people who desperately need them.

7 things you never knew about biometrics (Gadget)

UK: Banks accommodating mobile fingerprint biometrics

Is the UK banking sector ready to sideline passwords? (Information Age)

RBS and NatWest have been the first banks to announce that they are soon to allow customers to access accounts on their smartphones using fingerprint recognition technology.

The move is a seminal one for UK financial institutions, and an indication that the era of passwords may be finally drawing to a close.

Also:
Fingerprint authentication protects youngsters from themselves (Computer Weekly)

Both the Royal Bank of Scotland and MasterCard have recently made announcements regarding fingerprint authentication services and, if research from Visa Europe is anything to go by, the technology could be the best way to help users keep their bank details secure.

The research revealed those aged between 16 and 24-years-old are very liberal with personal details.

For example, 34% of this age group have shared their debit or credit card pin numbers with someone, compared with 23% for all age groups. Some 32% have shared their smartphone password and 20% have shared internet banking passwords.

US: Government open to Apple Pay

Apple Pay secures key US govt contract (Planet Biometrics)

Apple’s biometric payment system is set to be used by the US Federal Government for payment cards and social security and veteran’s payments, following an announcement by US President Barack Obama.

Windows 10 and biometrics

Microsoft Announces FIDO Support For Windows 10 (The Verge)

Soon, you may be able to log in to Outlook with a fingerprint or an eyescan. At the Stanford Cybersecurity Summit on Friday, Microsoft announced that Windows 10 would support the next version of the Fast Identification Online (FIDO) spec, allowing devices to work with a wealth of third-party biometric readers and providing an easy framework for any hardware makers that want to build extra security into a laptop or phone.

The amazing durability of password technology

You Might Want To Take Another Pass At Your Passwords (GPB News)

Cormac Herley is in the 95 percent who don't. He's principal researcher with Microsoft Research, an arm of the software giant.

"Passwords are the worst system in the world, except for all the other systems," he says.

Herley recommends assigning different tiers to passwords. Using your best, most complex ones for work and banking, but devoting less effort to those that don't matter as much. But even that can be a lot to ask, even for him.

"I write the passwords down and have a photocopy at home and a photocopy in the office and a couple copies here and there."

But, could all that be compromising security?

"Well, I mean, um, yes," he says.

I also love Harley's repurposing of the democracy quote often attributed to Winston Churchill.

Forecast: Health care biometrics worth US $5B by 2020

Special Report: Biometrics in Healthcare (Biometric Update)

This report examines how biometric technology is applied to the health care industry, mainly in the United States. This report notes that “health care biometrics” is utilized for access control, identification, workforce management or patient record storage. Biometrics in health care often takes two forms: providing access control to resources and patient identification solutions. The growing demand for biometrics solutions is mainly driven by the need to combat fraud, along with the imperative to improve patient privacy along with health care safety. Biometrics are also increasing being used for medical monitoring and mobile health care.

- Rawlson O`Neil King Lead Researcher, Biometrics Research Group, Inc.

Also, and unlike with most of these market analyses, Biometrics Research Group has made the entire report available for free via download at the link above.

"Get me some biometrics, stat!"

How biometrics could improve health security (Fortune)

For the last two years, the health industry suffered the highest number of hackings of any sector. Last year, it accounted for 43% of all data breaches, according to the Identity Theft Resource Center. To help prevent these costly issues, medical companies have begun adopting an array of biometrics security systems that use data from a patient’s fingerprint, iris, veins, or face.

There really isn't an identity management challenge that health care doesn't have.

India: What happens with lost UID numbers?

UIDAI devises a method to retrieve lost Aadhaar numbers (Business Standard)

A government official said as a person can only enrol for Aadhaar once, there needed to be a mechanism to retrace the number in case the person has misplaced all possible links to it.

“Enrolling again is not an option, as the system automatically rejects biometric details that have been registered once,” said the official.

Under the new method, a person can put in the biometrics and the system will keep prompting for more demographic details till the back-end server zeros down to 10 possible matches.

During the entire process, none of the details of the Aadhaar holders will be shown to the person or the operator till the time an exact match has been found.

This has been done keeping in mind the design of the Aadhaar project, where the system doesn’t reveal any information about the resident and only tries to authenticate the identity replying with a yes or no.

Forecasts for mobile biometrics and access control markets

Mobile Biometrics Device and Software Revenue to Reach $3.5 Billion by 2024 (TMC)


Access Control Market Worth $10.4 Billion by 2020 (Markets and Markets)

Generation Z prefers biometrics to passwords (NFC World) — In a study from the UK, 76% of consumers between the ages of 16 and 24 expressed comfort with biometric payments.

Ghana: Nearly 1 million biometric health insurance cards issued in Eastern Region

Eastern Region NHIS issues 979,002 biometric cards (Ghana News Agency)

Over 979,002 clients of the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) in the Eastern Region had been issued with the new biometric cards.

It might be a while

Smart Guns: How Close Are We Really? (Government Technology)

[...M]any topics surrounding smart guns were approached and many questions were fielded, but finding conclusions or consensus began to feel like a photographer’s pursuit of the sunset. Smart guns are a topic so mired in political dispute, technological uncertainty, arcane legal policy, and institutional avoidance and denial that each pursuit of an answer simply presented a sound of hemming and hawing that was accompanied by a new set of questions.

The challenge of smart guns is interesting on many levels.

First, the basic function of a firearm — a mechanical force applied to a primer and igniting a propellant that forces a projectile from a tube at high speed — hasn't changed much in the last hundred and fifty years and it doesn't require electricity. The energy used in the function of a firearm is provided kinetically, by cocking it, and then chemically in the ignition of the primer and powder.

Adding biometrics or other 21st century security technologies to a system like this requires a power source and the power sources that come with the basic function of the firearm aren't obviously well suited to powering microprocessor-based identity solutions.

So adding ID technology to firearms requires either a way of harnessing the energy already available to power the ID technology, or adding a power source that can supply the ID technology with the energy it needs to work. Those are both fairly significant challenges. The preferred solution to the power supply issue in smart guns seems to be the addition of a battery for the ID technology. But a battery-reliant firearm is a very different piece of hardware than current models that can be left stored, ready for instant use, more or less indefinitely. That feature of the current hardware set-up is highly relevant to the way many firearms are used by their current owners. "Wait, I need to charge my gun" probably isn't something most firearm owners are looking forward to saying.

Then, there's the corollary to the fact that modern firearms are essentially a nineteenth century technology: Actual firearms manufactured in the nineteenth century still perform their intended function just fine. Since firearms are fairly easy to maintain, it's not clear how long it might take for smart guns to account for any significant proportion of the total number of firearms.

Given these challenges (and there are others), it seems pretty clear that smart guns are destined to be a niche product. There still may be a niche or two where smart guns make a lot of sense. But what would that niche look like?

People in frequent contact with a unique firearm would be accustomed to maintaining it frequently and would not be constrained by having to "enroll" on new hardware so often as to cause annoyance. Many who use a firearm in the course of their profession fit this description.

Professionals who carry firearms along with other rechargeable electronic equipment (flashlights, walkie-talkies, handheld computers, etc.) might not find plugging another piece of hardware into a recharger at the end of a day's work too inconvenient.

People who are at a heightened risk of having their own firearm used against them might find smart gun technology more valuable than those with lower risk.

Those interested in smart guns should keep niches like these in mind as potential early adopters of smart gun technology. If the cost/benefit of the technology doesn't work there, it's hard to see it taking off anywhere.

For other firearm owners interested in using new ID technologies to make owning a firearm safer, there are a range of solutions and the good news is they're backward compatible for use with dumb guns.

India: Iris to replace thumb print for pensioner verification in one district

‘Iris recognition system’ for pensions to be launched in Andhra Pradesh (Niti Central)

A biometric 'Iris identification system' for distribution of pension will be soon launched in Krishna district of Andhra Pradesh.

At present, the pensions are being paid by taking a thumb impression of the pensioners, Krishna District Collector A Babu said in an official release. However, sometimes the illegible thumb impressions create problems, he said.

This is perhaps the first time I've seen one biometric modality displace another one in an existing ID management application.

The performance expectations for iris must be substantially higher than what the existing fingerprint system is producing because it looks like there will have to be a new enrollment process for pensioners in the 100 political villages and municipal wards undertaking the change.

Talk about mobile ID...

Your Arizona Driver's License Could Be Stored Someday on Your Smartphone (Phoenix New Times)

Delaware aims to be 1st with digital driver's licenses (USA Today)

So, which will it be? Or, will some other state beat them both?

A discussion of facial recognition in retail stores

Is Facial Recognition The Next Privacy Battleground? (Fast Company)

While much recent retail technology buzz has focused on the promise and peril of Apple's iBeacons, another identity tech has matured: facial recognition. It's now powerful enough to let stores use cameras to link customers' faces to information stored in databases—but it's also finding use in industrial and transportation settings, where it can be used to keep people away from sensitive areas. But are we ready for this tech to start linking personal data with our faces without our knowledge?

Legally, there's nothing stopping American businesses from doing so. A recent BBC article posited the future concern that retail businesses could compare photos taken in-store with databases drawing from data found on the Internet—like databases of social media or Facebook users...

The piece is worth reading in its entirety.

US: New Mexico legislator proposes biometrics for voter ID

Thumbs Up? New Mexico to Study Biometrics to ID Voters (University of Minnesota)

Senate Minority Whip William Payne introduced a proposal this week that calls for the state's top elections officials to study the feasibility of bringing biometrics into the mix. That could mean anything from retinal scans to the thumbprint-imaging technology used to access smartphones.

After hearing the same debate year after year, the Albuquerque Republican said he wanted to find a way to take some of the "venom" out of the argument that requiring photo identification would lead to voter suppression.

I don't like to see so much made of retina biometrics but because this is big enough news, I'm linking it anyway.

That explains things a bit

It's Apple's fault that the Nexus 6 doesn't have a fingerprint sensor (The Verge)

Former Motorola CEO Dennis Woodside has confessed that the dimple at the back of the Nexus 6 was originally intended to play host to a fingerprint sensor. Back in 2011, Motorola was a pioneer in bringing fingerprint recognition to its Atrix 4G smartphone, however the company it used then, Authentec, was purchased by Apple a year later for a price of $356 million. Authentec were, in Woodside's judgment, the best supplier around and "the second best supplier was the only one available to everyone else in the industry and they weren’t there yet."

Samsung to offer "touch-style" mobile fingerprint sensor

Samsung to ape Apple's Touch ID with touch-style fingerprint sensor in 'Galaxy S6' - report (Apple Insider)

Samsung's next flagship smartphone will ship with a Touch ID-like fingerprint sensor in place of the swipe-style sensor that the company employed on the underwhelming Galaxy S5, according to a new report.

Good move. The "swipe readers" can be a bit trickier to use.

Windows 10 pregame

What to expect (and what you won't see) at this week's Windows 10 launch

The Windows 10 technical preview released last fall was aimed squarely at enterprise customers, bringing back the Start menu and allowing sandboxed Windows Store apps to run in windows instead of full screen. This week's update should be much more focused on consumer devices and services.

Here's what I'll be looking for in Redmond on Wednesday...

There is a brief biometric mention, but it's mostly big-picture analysis of Microsoft's consumer offerings.

USAA adopts mobile biometrics for account verification

In Your Face: USAA Brings Biometric Logon to Mobile Users

“This will make USAA the first U.S. financial institution to offer facial and voice recognition on a mobile app as added protection against fraud and identity theft,” the company announced.

So how does it work? USAA’s facial recognition requires users to look at the screen and, when prompted, blink their eyes. For voice recognition, users must read a short phrase.

Saygus V2 smartphone: Android with a fingerprint reader

First impressions: Saygus V2, the phone with 320GB storage (Times of India)

The right edge of the phone sports all hardware buttons(volume rocker, power and camera shutter) and a fingerprint sensor as well as a 60GHz mobile beaming transmitter.

The fingerprint reader appears to be one of the models where the user slides their finger across the sensor. The linked piece has a lot of photos and a review.

Forecast: Global E-passport and E-visa Market 2015-2019

Global E-passport and E-visa market to grow at a CAGR of 30.17 percent over the period 2014-2019 (Research and Markets)

Forecast: Global biometrics market to see 19.6% CAGR through 2020

Biometrics - A Global Market Overview (Research and Markets)

The global market for Biometrics is slated to post a strong CAGR of 19.6% between 2014 and 2020 to reach a projected US$30.1 billion by 2020 from an estimated US$10.3 billion in 2014. Fingerprint recognition is estimated the largest technology with market worth US$3.2 billion in 2014 while Civil ID is slated to be the largest application with global market of US$4.6 billion in the same year.

Is nothing sacred?

Thieves hack American and United accounts, book free flights (Digital Trends)

Cybercriminals armed with usernames and passwords broke into customer accounts at American and United airlines, with some going so far as to book free flights and seat upgrades.

Cybersecurity in Brazil

Guest Post: Brazil’s Cybersecurity Conundrum (Council of Foreign Relations)

Brazil has embraced the digital age with more gusto than most. It is one of the top users of social media and recently signed-off on a bill of rights for the Internet, the Marco Civil. The country is also a leader in the development of online banking with more than 43 percent of web users engaging such services, and can be proud of a thriving software industry, including some world class companies.

Brazil certainly is an interesting case.

India: News from the UID hackathon

Codes fly thick and fast in first Aadhaar Hackathon (Economic Times)

A slew of initiatives, including financial support to Aadhaar-based companies, were announced at country's first hackathon, dedicated to innovating on the Aadhaar platform. The 24-hour marathon coding competition, conducted by incubator Khosla Labs and Nasscom, also announced an appstore dedicated to such applications, to be launched by the end of this month.

Cool!

Better late than never

US customs allocated funding to test biometric exit app (Security Document World)

A Department of Homeland Security (DHS) appropriations bill released on 9 January allocates US$3 million in funding for testing of a biometric exit app that would be used by Customs and Border Protection (CBP).

The funding will be used for a biometric exit mobile application demonstration at two airports, according to an explanatory note added to the bill.

The idea of implementing an exit system at all US ports of entry was first touted in 1996 as part of the “Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act”.

More praise for passwords

In defence of the humble password (SC Magazine)

We've expressed similar thoughts here.

Then again, perhaps not

A Hacker Reveals How Your Fingerprint Could Be Easier To Hack Than A Traditional Password (Business Insider) ...In which the article contradicts the headline.

Hacking a fingerprint sensor with a photograph is far from easy.

Cool hardware — YubiKey wants to be like Touch ID for your Internet life (Cult of Mac)

3D scanner has biometric applications

Kind of a way of making templates that will allow the recreation of all sorts of three dimensional objects — Researchers develop 3-D reconstruction software (Phys.org)

This software performs a 3D scan of the original mechanical parts or faces to obtain a virtual model of the real dimensions of objects or parts that are no longer manufactured so they can be reproduced, said Jorge Luis Nuñez Flores, professor at the Department of Electronics of the University Center for Science in Engineering (CUCEI) of UDG.

"The reconstruction technique involves the projection and acquisition of binary patterns (stripes of clear and dark lights, deployed vertically and horizontally) using a commercial projector and a digital camera," says Nuñez Flores.

Very clever, really. But unlike biometric templates, this technology is specifically made to help "reverse engineer" the original 3D object. So, in a way, this is a lot more like a data compression tool, than a biometric template generator.

Biometrics front and center at Las Vegas Consumer Electronics Show

Biometrics and Pinball: Five companies on CES’ early watch list (ars technica)

When setting up the device, you take a number of pictures of the people you trust around your space to “teach” it what you look like, and the device will snap a photo every time it sees a face and send you a notification on your phone as people are seen. If a stranger pops up, you get a notification that “an unknown face has been seen" for your review. “It’s not a surveillance camera, but it is a security camera,” a Netatmo representative told us.

Peoples' surrounding are going to become much more responsive to the individuals within them. This piece of technology is a very small step in that direction.

Los Cazafantasmas de Argentina

Argentina reveals new biometric requirements for pensions (Planet Biometrics)

Argentina’s social security agency has announced that all pensioners will need to undergo biometric registration to receive payments, and that all ATM payment services for benefits must also have fingerprint readers installed by June.

¿Cómo se dice, "Ghostbusters?"

Biometrics market forecast: Middle East

UAE, Saudi Arabia, Turkey And Israel Spurring The Demand For Biometrics Systems In Middle-East Biometrics Market (EFY Times)

Increasing investments, surging government security spending, rising number of tourists, government projects, upcoming UAE’s World Expo 2020 and increasing IT spending are fueling the demand for biometrics systems in Middle-East market. In global biometrics market, share of Middle-East region is expected to surge due to countries such as UAE, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Israel.

BYOD driving demand for mobile biometric hardware

In 2011, we observed that:

Mobile hardware is a tricky business. There is a tension between the market signals coming from the "make 'em cheaper" vs the "make 'em more secure" crowds.


It looks like that is set to change in a big way...

BYOD Security to Improve With Mobile Device Biometrics

IHS technology supports that claim and reports that mobile companies will drive that growth through the use of fingerprint sensors, a market that could be valued at $1.7 billion by 2020. "Fingerprint sensors have arrived in force and we are forecasting that shipments of fingerprint enabled handsets and tablets will reach 1.4 billion units by 2020," Marwan Boustany, senior analyst at IHS Technology, told the publication.

As with many things in the technology world — domestic air travel, vehicle air bags, mobile phones, etc. — mobile biometric hardware started out with high cost and limited appeal. If International Data Corporation (IDC) is correct in its assessment, mobile biometrics could take a similar path to ubiquity.

Juniper: Biometrics, NFC top tech trends of 2015 (SecureIDNews)

The number one trend is secure data by using encryption, tokenization and biometric authentication. In the wake of a number of high profile security breaches, cloud service providers need to regain trust at both the enterprise and consumer level.

US: Los Angeles County acquiring multimodal biometric ID system

LA County Sheriff’s Department to Start Collecting Face and Eye Scans (The Epoch Times)

Thai argues the new data collection will actually protect people from identity theft and will avoid wrongful arrests.

“Sometimes we arrest people, and they don’t use their real name, so by having a better way to identify that person, it will protect the public [from] those that will get their name used by somebody else,” he said.

The technology will be used by all of the approximately 46 law enforcement agencies in Los Angeles County. It will take about 15-18 months to be installed and fully operational.

LA County may be one of the more complex law enforcement environments in the developed world.

Technology is neutral

WikiLeaks Releases Alleged CIA Documents Detailing Travel Tips For Undercover Agents (IBT)

“The two classified documents … detail border-crossing and visa regulations, the scope and content of electronic systems, border guard protocols and procedures for secondary screenings,” WikiLeaks said, in the statement. “The documents show that the CIA has developed an extreme concern over how biometric databases will put CIA clandestine operations at risk.”

In the leaked documents, the CIA also expressed concerns over the impact the implementation of a biometric security system in the Schengen Area would have on its undercover operatives traveling under false identities, adding that it would “increase the identity threat level for all US travelers.” The Schengen Area comprises of a bloc of 22 European nations that have relaxed passport and border controls at their common borders.

Biometrics can be used to suss out identity fraud among organized criminals. Biometrics also appear to be greatly complicating the activities of intelligence agencies to move assets from country to country.

The technology doesn't care.

Being realistic about passwords

Ping Identity engineer: On second thought, passwords may be okay (FierceEnterpriseCommunications)

In the first part of a new discussion with Paul Madsen, a senior technical architect in Ping's office of the CTO, I first asked whether Ping truly did intend to resurrect the password as a viable mechanism by way of supporting FIDO 1.0.

Paul Madsen, Senior Technical Architect, Ping Identity: It's less a resurrection than just trying to be a little bit realistic about what FIDO does, and what it can do. Half of the FIDO specification set--U2F, specifically--pretty much assumes that there are still passwords in the mix. FIDO, arguably more so than killing off passwords, just mitigates some of their worst problems, particularly the risk of bulk compromise of the password database, as we see more and more.

Two things jump right out of this article. The first is the realistic treatment of the fact that passwords aren't going the way of the dodo any time soon. The second is that passwords that control access to databases of passwords are very different than passwords that control access to an individual account.

The big scores are database hacks.

See also:
FIDO is not the end of passwords (and that's OK) at the Ping Identity blog. It's well worth it.

Face rec ATM debuts in Baltimore

Face-scanning ATM test in Baltimore (PYMNTS)

Securityplus Federal Credit Union is installing the biometric ATM at one of its seven branches. Instead of calling in each member for a photo session, the ATM will snap a picture after members enter their eight-digit PIN. When the member later returns to the ATM for another transition, if the face is deemed a match, the transaction is granted without requiring the PIN again.

Predicting the future of security

IDC Reveals Worldwide Security Predictions for 2015 (TMCnet)

Some excerpts:

2. Biometric Identification - Mobile devices have biometric capabilities and in 2015 we expect that 15% of those devices will be accessed biometrically, and that number will grow to 50% by 2020.

5. Security SaaS - Enterprises will be utilizing security software as a service (SaaS) in a greater share of their securiy spending. By the end of 2015, 15% of all security will be delivered via SaaS or be hosted and by 2018 over 33% will be.

6. User Management - By 2016, multi-factor authentication will be the primary method of access control used by 20% of enterprises for highly privileged or otherwise sensitive accounts.

There's a lot more good information at the link.

Vascular biometrics have a lot to offer

Hitachi finger vein scanner could secure large venues (Network World)

The scanner is able to confirm a person’s identity by detecting finger vein patterns, which are unique to each person. It works regardless of the number of fingers used or their orientation above the scanner surface, allowing it to process about 70 users per minute.

Vascular biometrics have a lot to offer. There's no latency (i.e. no prints left behind). They're contactless, and they're getting faster.

Well, he will be soon, he's very ill.

The Dead Collector: Bring out yer dead.
Man With Dead Body: Here's one.
The Dead Collector: That'll be ninepence.
That Claims It Isn't: I'm not dead.
The Dead Collector: What?
Man With Dead Body: Nothing. There's your ninepence.
The Dead Collector: 'Ere, he says he's not dead.
Man With Dead Body: Yes he is.
That Claims It Isn't: I'm not.
The Dead Collector: He isn't.
Man With Dead Body: Well, he will be soon, he's very ill. [Source]

FIDO 1.0 Specifications are Published and Final Preparing for Broad Industry Adoption of Strong Authentication in 2015 (FIDO Alliance)

“Today, we celebrate an achievement that will define the point at which the old world order of passwords and PINs started to wither and die,” said Michael Barrett, president of the FIDO Alliance. “FIDO Alliance pioneers can forever lay claim to ushering in the ‘post password’ era, which is already revealing new dimensions in Internet services and digital commerce.”

FIDO is doing great work at developing standards for managing online identity without passwords.
FIDO's press release and this article at PC World explain what FIDO is up to quite well and the people behind FIDO are to be commended for tackling a serious issue, the solution to which could add significantly to the value proposition for businesses and customers interacting over electronic networks.

Just don't fall for all the "death of passwords" hype that is out there in other places.

Passwords are going to be around for a long, long time but FIDO is doing a great job of corralling them back to where they can do the most good with the least annoyance.

See also:
Why Passwords are Great

Fingerprint credit cards headed to the UK

New Biometric MasterCards Take Norway; Britain is Next (findBIOMETRICS)

So next year the card is going to make its debut in Britain, a country that seems to have recently come around to the benefits of biometric technology, having fully embraced biometric airport screening after a disastrous initial go of it a decade ago. The fingerprint scanners in MasterCard’s new credit cards are, of course, for authentication purposes, and will replace the PIN system currently in use in Britain.

Tech firms developing privacy expertise

Eid Passport Lawyers Up On Biometric, Data Issues (findBIOMETRICS)

To those outside the industry it may seem like an odd thing to announce, but those in the fields of identity management and biometrics are likely well aware of the anxieties percolating as data-collecting technology steadily creeps into many facets of contemporary life...

Biometrics for secure medical records access

NSTIC pilot uses biometrics to bring identity management to seniors (Fierce Government IT)

Members of AARP, a nonprofit group that serves adults 50 years or older, are testing technology to help them better manage their digital identities in a simple, but more secure way using biometrics. It's just one of 15 federally funded pilots that was recently highlighted by the National Institute of Standards and Technology.

Access control upstages video surveillance

The Press Release for this Memoori market research study contains a lot of great information...

This steady consistent growth since 2011 has been driven by a combination of factors including strong growth in IP Video Networking and IP Access Control products, buoyant markets in Asia and North America and higher levels of penetration in vertical markets such as transport, retail, health and education.

ACCESS CONTROL MOVES TO IP AND DELIVERS CUSTOMER VALUE PROPOSITIONS

Access Control, for so long the poor relative of Video Surveillance, this year it has come out of the shadows and upstaged it by delivering a higher growth rate and we forecast that it will continue to increase its growth rate over the next 5 years.

This will be achieved by moving to IP Technology and integrating Access Control with Identity Management. There can be no doubt about the business case for integrating these services. Identity Management for the purpose of Access Control has given rise to a number of major acquisitions in the last 5 years. September 2010 saw a flurry of activity with the purchase of L-1 Identity Solutions by Safran for $1.1 billion, 3M’s purchase of Cogent Systems for $430m, the merger of AuthenTec and UPEK. In 2014 whilst the number of deals declined, this group accounted for 19.2% of the total number of acquisitions and 5.6% of the total value.

Access control through a standard card reader system is a weakness particularly at a time when risk of corporate theft, malicious damage to staff and property and terrorism has increased. The need for a more secure system incorporating biometric devices to authenticate identity and manage the process is becoming a standard requirement for new systems in high security areas.

Physical Identity and Access Management (PIAM) is also a service that promises to deliver further growth opportunities. It enables common policy, workflow, approval, compliance automation and life cycle management of the identity / badge holder (employee, contractor, visitor, temps) across disparate physical security systems. The key benefit from PIAM solutions is operational cost reductions that can be delivered through this platform providing a bridge between the disparate systems, without stripping out and starting again. PIAM has so far failed to attracted the mainstream PACS business.

There is a steady stream of alliances and partnerships between PIAM Software companies & PACS companies but so far we have not identified any mergers and acquisitions. Information on the business is pretty sparse and most “best estimates” on the market size range around $150 million. This if accurate is quite small considering that virtually all Fortunes Top 500 companies must have installed one.

IMPROVED PERFORMANCE, ROI & REDUCED TCO

Now has to be the time to dig even deeper and for manufacturers to increase their efforts to align the motivation of security buyers to invest in better performing systems through educating and training both themselves and those in the distribution channel in order to drive out all the benefits.

Whilst technology has been the enabler of change, the driver and motivator is now clearly to channel this to deliver products and services that increase productivity and provide a better ROI and reduce the TCO. This is gradually changing the buyers culture from believing that physical security is a pure cost centre to a profit centre.

Security, sadly, is still regarded by most end users as a cost center and as such has been towards the end of the food chain for capital investment. This can be crucial when budget reductions are on the agenda. However a gradual change in attitude by buyers is taking place. Specifically that security can be a cost saver when reducing shrinkage (retail) and that when integrated with other services it can increase productivity in the business enterprise and therefore reduce operational costs. This has been made possible through IP convergence and in some vertical markets such as retail there is a growing belief that IP Video Surveillance should be treated as a profit centre.

This has had a major impact on increasing the value-add on security projects. The market has not been slow to see the opportunities and changing requirements for more converged and integrated solutions. In order for companies to deliver such systems many have decided that it is necessary to acquire, merge or form alliances and partnerships with other suppliers. In order to maximize the opportunities of delivering on ROI it is vital for suppliers to have specialist knowledge and experience in vertical markets. But equally important is to have the networking skills to join all the vertical and horizontal layers of product together with the analytical software and interface with the other building services software and finally join them to the business enterprise. Video Surveillance is already on route to establishing an important role in the Building Internet of Things (BIoT) and the wider IoT.

Marketers look to "facial coding" program

The new technology that can read your face, and your mind (Yahoo - Australia)

Using the camera in your personal device, the new facial recognition software interprets your emotions by mapping the minute movements of your eyes when you smile, your mouth when you gasp or the furrow of your brow when you are confused.

“They use the technology to make sure that people have understood their content,” Matt Newcomb from Proctor and Gamble said.

Some (me included) might quibble that this isn't technically a facial recognition system because it isn't used to uniquely identify an individual within a larger set of individuals even though true face-rec and this emotional response detector use some of the same underlying technologies.

Some organizations that opt for this type of technology will do a better job of explaining its use than others.

Ghana: Praise for biometric health insurance scheme

Government has been commended for giving full backing to the Biometric Registration System adopted recently by the National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA) to ensure greater patronage. (Spy Ghana) — the new system has completely abolished the three months waiting period which, hitherto, newly –registered members had to go through before getting their membership Cards.

The Nitty Gritty of fingerprint algorithm testing

re:ID podcast — The Minutiae Interoperability Exchange Test
Gina Jordan and NIST researcher Patrick Grother discuss the ins and outs of how some fingerprint templates are made and how the US National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) provides the service that allows algorithm developers to test them (6:26 min.).

Biometrics in US v ISIS Co-In

U.S. expects some familiar faces among Syria rebel recruits (Reuters)

The Pentagon has estimated that it can train 5,400 recruits in the first year and that up to 15,000 will be needed to retake areas of eastern Syria controlled by Islamic State. It hopes more training sites might allow training of more recruits.

They will face a thorough vetting, including psychological exams and gathering of biometric data, the official said. Candidates' names would be run through U.S. databases and shared with regional allies for checks.

Ghana streamlines payments to employees

GhIPSS hails National Service e-zwich agreement (Ghana Web)

The National Service Scheme announced a change in the mode of payment of allowances last week, saying from January 2015 payment of allowances to all national service personnel at post shall be effected through the biometric e-zwich platform.

This is to ensure that payments are made directly to national service personnel by cutting down on the existing long chain of effecting payments.

India linking UID to voter rolls

India: EC to check bogus voting, link Aadhaar with electoral rolls (Hindustan Times)

“We keep getting complaints of bogus and duplicate votes. One of the best ways to ensure that a person votes only once in the country is to link electoral rolls with Aadhaar numbers. It will be a very tedious and time-consuming exercise and we can start it only when elections are over,” Delhi’s chief electoral officer Vijay Dev said.

“We will organise special camps for people to first enrol for Aadhaar and then for the electoral rolls, especially in areas where the enrolment for both Aadhaar and voter card is extremely low. We will tie up with the district administration for this,” Dev said.

Former chief minister and Aam Aadmi Party national convenor Arvind Kejriwal had complained to the CEO that fake votes were allegedly being cast in different constituencies. The electoral office also stumbled upon some names in the electoral rolls, pointing towards a bigger racket.

Push notifications to bust truant Saudis

Saudi School Goes Biometric to Curb Student Bunking (New Indian Express)

In a novel step to monitor students' attendance, a school in Saudi Arabia has introduced fingerprinting system, also enabling parents to be updated about their children's arrival and departure time via a cellphone message.

A way out of "Authentication hell"

Biometric authentication could help solve online fraud (bobsguide)

Darren Hodder, Director of Fraud Consulting told delegates at the SMi 2nd Annual Big Data in Retail Financial Services last week that the easiest way to solve online fraud is for banks to know exactly who their customer is, which could be achieved through biometric authentication.

Hodder believes that we are currently in “authentication hell” and that the authentication processes used by biometrics such as facial, iris, finger print or vein recognition could help to reduce the risk of fraud and enhance customer experience by enabling banks to recognise exactly who their customers are.