onClick Biometrics in touch

IBG event in New York

If I was in New York I would go. If you are, you should. It's free, and you just need to make a reservation. Here's the info straight from my email:

INFRAGARD MEMBERSHIP ALLIANCE - METRO NEW YORK 2005 BIOMETRIC TECHNOLOGY BRIEFING - JANUARY 18, 2005

International Biometric Group (IBG) extends an invitation to participate in the InfraGard Biometric Security Summit scheduled for January 18, 2005 in New York, NY. Several speakers from leading biometric companies will be presenting on various topics critical to the biometrics industry. InfraGard is an information sharing and analysis effort serving the interests and combining the knowledge base of a wide range of members. At its most basic level, InfraGard is a cooperative undertaking between the U.S. Government (led by the FBI) and an association of businesses, academic institutions, state and local government and law enforcement agencies, and other participants dedicated to increasing the security of the United States'critical infrastructure.

Peter VanBuskirk, a consultant at IBG, will be presenting a general overview outlining major technologies, application areas, performance factors, major deployments, and other critical issues related to biometrics. This presentation will provide the audience with the background information necessary to begin understanding the benefits and challenges associated with implementing biometrics.

This briefing is open to the public, but reservations are required for attendance. Please visit the InfraGard Metro New York website at www.nym-infragard.us to make reservations or contact Laurie Venditti at [email protected]. Be sure to mention participation code IBG11005 when making your reservation.    

Yeah right.

Somebody's weblog posted this image from a reader that shows the 'US is down'. We should know by now that these kiosks are just one way of going through the US-VISIT process; most locations focus more on the manned booths.

But this would be a whole lot funnier if say, it was real. So I guess - here's to a good laugh at photoshopping.

US Closed for the day.

Biometrics at the most basic level

Identifying a biometric goes on a gazillion times a day. Only now do we have technology to do the dirty work for us, and make assumptions based more on fact than objective human opinions.

But anytime someone identifies a person by looking at particular characteristics of theirs, that's using a biometric. Even though there is no database for any biometric system to compare victims of the Tsunami to, there is still biometric identification going on.

They are narrowing down identification of the bodies by determining foreigners from natives by measuring the length of bones, facial bone structure, and patterns of hair growth.

Sometimes you just have to take a step back and take 'biometrics' for what it really is: A measurable, physical characteristic or personal behavioral trait used to recognize the identity, or verify the claimed identity, of an enrollee.

In this case, let's just say they are an 'enrollee' of the human race. Good luck to those doctors, they have a long arduous task ahead of them.

Thais to restart identifying tsunami victims.

A silver lining in our future

Well this is a warm article. All the things that ill-informed journalists have been tripping over lately really ARE seen in a positive light to the journalists who DO do their research.

Enjoy a good read for once: Safer and freer in 2005.

Portable fingerprints at CES

Already floating around the net are reports on gadgets being showcased at the Consumer Electronic Show. It's still not officially up and running, but sites like Gizmodo and Engadget are way ahead of the game.

Here's a brief rundown of some things that this one reporter already spotted. Lexar has a keychain drive with a fingerprint sensor, and also making its first appearance at CES is this flash drive that he didn't cover.

Lexar Media, flash memory maker, showed off USB keychain drives that protect the files stored on them using biometrics. They can scan your fingerprint and prevent someone who finds the drive--should you misplace it or leave it somewhere--from accessing your files. I've lost more than a few keychain drives and tried hard not to think about the files I left on them and how they might be used.

A first look at CES.

Facing ID theft.

Here's a little story about Colorado's use of facial recognition in obtaining driver's licenses. This is an interesting excerpt:

Of the nearly 735,000 applications processed between January and September 2004, motor vehicle officials found 528 fraudulent applications - about a quarter of them solely as a result of the facial-recognition computer program.

However even though the computer can narrow down matches to a handful versus a score of people in the database, a human touch is still needed to make that final confirmation. When the computer notices similarities, it's up to an investigator to decide if it's the same person.

Facial scanning targets ID theft.

It's always about the standards.

DHS is making an effort to get standards developed for their projects to work at an optimal performance level. With standards in place, it will be simple to share information, failure rates will be minimal, and teaching employees how to operate just one system becomes less stressful.

That's just off the top of my head. I'm sure there are tons of other reasons for developing a standard. But anyways - DHS has become a member of The International Committee for Information Technology Standards.

DHS puts its money on standards.

How easy it is to work for Apple.. for free.

Okay we're back. Did you keep yourself entertained during the holidays? Even though we weren't helping to spread the word, there was still news being created, and some of it deserves our special attention.

We can start with Apple, whom I don't think there has ever been much said about here. It doesn't have anything to do with biometrics, but it proposes a security question:  Is it really a security flaw when you have people breaking in to do good? Still though, this example shows a rare occurance when someone has been sneaking into a business for six months to do something positive while in most cases, the company isn't so lucky...

Worming into Apple.