onClick Biometrics in touch

Identity management gets federated

Well, I had this nice little post all done up yesterday but TypePad lost it on me.
Anyways - it was about the benefits of a federated identity management system.

Extended Identity - Though federated identity management technologies promise improved access to networks and cost savings, issues of trust and interoperability slow adoption.

CSI computer security webcast

So there's a webcast by CSI tomorrow about that survey they did outlining computer security crime statistics. The one that was called the 2004 CSI/FBI Computer Crime and Security Survey.
It's at 9am PT and 12pm ET. It's free.
Go here to register.

UK preparing for the security...

IT directors across Europe are bracing themselves for the introduction of biometric technology in the office. An Hitachi Data Systems' survey found that 65 per cent expect to see iris scanning and fingerprint recognition systems introduced in the near future. Nearly half, 44 per cent anticipating the technology being implemented within two years, and a very excitable five per cent expect deployment in the next six months.

Get ready for biometrics at work.

A surprising fact today...

This is another one of those "Oh my gosh! Passwords aren't effective anymore?!?!?!" posts. Try to act surprised.
On second thought, because you're being subjected to another one of these redundant articles, I'll go look for something more substantial....
Passwords fail to defend enterprises. (THE HORROR!!!!11!1! :o )

You don't need biometrics because you aren't a pilot.

Uh oh - some bad press for biometrics. And since this weblog tries to take a small move away from the normal corporate inclinations we have as a biometric manufacturer, we thought it fair to show you this. And of course, know that you're able to make up your own mind about things.

Research from Gartner presented at the IT Security Summit conference in London said that many security technologies out now aren't necessary. Including biometrics. This is very contradicatory to all the other reports, studies, surveys, opinions, forecasts, projections, diary entries, and dance interpretations that have said that security needs to be priority, and newer tactics need to be in place. No doubt some of that by Gartner themselves.

Well anyways, here it is:

The list of security items a company probably doesn't need within the next five years includes personal digital signatures, quantum key exchanges, passive intrusion detection, biometrics, tempest shielding (to protect some devices from emanating decipherable data), default passwords, and enterprise digital rights management outside of workgroups, according to Victor Wheatman, vice president and research area director at Gartner, based in Stamford, Connecticut.

As a company, you should be able to determine yourself if you need biometrics or any of these other tools on your own merit. Not because you don't employ "airline pilots" or 'stubborn executives', the only good reason to deploy biometrics, obviously.
Avoid security tools you don't need.

Business security spending in 2004

A survey by PricewaterhouseCoopers and CIO magazine, covering 8,000 IT execs in 62 countries found out things. As surveys do. But this one found out things like:

• 64% of companies say security spending will increase this year.
  
• Even though there is a significant amount being allocated for identity management, government and compliance issues are still the priority need for spending.
  
• North American organizations (58%) are more likely to have established appropriate use of the Internet as part of their security policy than organizations in Asia (41%), South America (37%) and Europe (36%).
  
• Data protection, disclosure and destruction are reported as part of organizations' security policies at (51%) of the organizations in North America versus (44%) in Asia, (40%) in Europe and (24%) South America.
  

The State of Information Security 2004.

Bank on it: it's coming.

There are several industries that are in the race to get moving on biometric implementation. The casinos mentioned the other day are just one, and they're a much newer contender.
Some of the elders with more of a lead in introducing new technology to their world would be industries like finance, including insurance.

Penny Gillespie, senior analyst at Forrester Research, explains that the use of an identifying and unique feature such as a thumbprint might be a replacement for a credit card when a consumer makes a retail online purchase.
For online purchasers, computers could have a fingerprint reader attached as a peripheral, she said.
Will customers go along? That's the big question. John Herrera, an operations manager at Signature Reprographics in Sacramento, already has abandoned most check-writing in favor of electronic transactions.
"That's kind of weird," Herrera said, when asked about using his thumbprint. But, after a moment of reflection, he added that the idea might work.

Banking's new frontier - paper checks are giving way to digital imaging, rapid processing and other innovations.

Put in perspective.

The Ten Immutable Laws of Security (taken from here. Via here.)

1. If a bad guy can persuade you to run his program on your computer, it's not your computer anymore.

2. If a bad guy can alter the operating system on your computer, it's not your computer anymore.

3. If a bad guy has unrestricted physical access to your computer, it's not your computer anymore.

4. If you allow a bad guy to upload programs to your web site, it's not your web site any more.

5. Weak passwords trump strong security.

6. A machine is only as secure as the administrator is trustworthy.

7. Encrypted data is only as secure as the decryption key.

8. An out of date virus scanner is only marginally better than no virus scanner at all.

9. Absolute anonymity isn't practical, in real life or on the web.

10. Technology is not a panacea.

Make mine a double!

Idealy, ultimate security would consist of many many layers of authentication, making it impossible for someone to spoof all of them, let alone one.
This could be something like combining one biometric identifier with another means of security, like a password or RFID card. Or you could even combine multiple biometrics (called multimodal).
Someone at Microsoft's magazine knows that too.
Two are better than one. It's time to make the move to two-factor authentication.

Pushing healthcare into the 21st century.

Healthcare coming current with modern processes = another chance for biometrics to shine.
This article requires a membership. Here's some good stuff:

The Bush administration plans to announce today a long-term plan for modernizing the nation's health care system with information technology, bringing patient records and prescriptions out of the realm of ink and paper and into the computer age.
The government, according to the report, will also use its formidable buying power as the largest purchaser of health care - through federal Medicare and Medicaid programs - to accelerate the transition to electronic patient records, reversing what the report terms "a previous lack of cohesive federal policies supporting" health information technology.
The report, "The Decade of Health Information Technology," is being published today at the beginning of a government-sponsored conference in Washington. It says that the government should work closely with the private sector to ensure common product standards for storing electronic health records, so data can be shared among institutions and personal information can be kept secure. A product certification system, the report says, should be considered.

Government wants to bring health records into computer age.