onClick Biometrics in touch

same president, different everybody else

I don't know how this could affect the presence of biometrics in homeland security, if at all, but a big proponent of the technology, Homeland Security secretary Tom Ridge, has resigned.

Asa Hutchinson may step up from his undersecretary duties, who you may recognize as well, appearing at many biometric functions and speaking in behalf of the efforts.

Three more top level officials resign from White House.

The possibilities are endless

I got in a creative mood earlier and began thinking of useful implementations of biometrics that I haven't seen applied yet. Can you think of any?

• Museum memberships
• Apartment gates (has been talked about before, but never heard anything solid)
• That one drawer in your office desk that has your snacks (hey, people steal food all the time!)
• lockers or drawers in dorm rooms and their community bathrooms
• Ok, this was about the time I started thinking about something else....

Have a good weekend!

Hear! Hear!

In response to the upset of Mr. Barnes over his company requesting him to give in to the Mark of the Beast (see the previous post), this columnist gives his two cents.

The author declares himself an avid avoider of Big Brother and privacy-invading issues, but says that this now unemployed man may have taken it too far. His anger has clouded his better judgement, and maybe he just wants to be difficult. I don't know... but he needs to read this too.

The flaw in Mr Barnes' Mark of the Beast worries is that while he refuses to use a credit card, for the same reason as he wants to keep his fingerprint to himself, he had presumably been happy to use his company's old time-clock to punch himself in and out of work. As I recall, a punch clock uses coded cards, each unique to a user, which is the precursor to credit card barcodes and the technology that reduces the swirls and curls of a fingerprint into a unique combination of numbers. I fear for him that they are all equally marked by the beast.

Give the boss the finger? What rapture it will be.

Religion takes a stab at bringing down biometrics.

The religious conflict of interest will never go away. It's always going to be an issue when biometrics butts heads with people who are sure Big Brother and 'The Mark of the Beast' are things that need to be habitually avoided, and reside within the technology.

Like this one man, who lost his job because he refused to give his fingerprint for the new time & attendance system. Often the basis of such arguments lies in attributes of the technology that they believe to be true, however false it may be. But even when presented with the real facts, it doesn't do much to sway people who want to grasp at anything to continue holding onto their beliefs. If they dislike the technology so much, that in itself should be the reason why you refuse to use it. Not everyone likes computers, or cell phones - this is just one more technology that doesn't have to agree with everyone. Yes only the data is stored for use, not the fingerprint itself. But tell that to someone who believes it could be used to find out other things, and sometimes it just doesn't do any good.

Employers as it is have so much information on their employees that using a fingerprint to "find out how many seconds staff spend on the toilet" seems trivial. Right now they can look up credit reports, and past addresses, criminal history... They don't need a fingerprint for that.

Man sacked for refusing to give employer his fingerprints.

Update: Right up the alley of this post is an opinion article just published on eWeek's site. Keep Real Privacy Risks in Focus.

In the meantime, I don't want to yield the floor to the forces of hysteria. In an essay published in the Detroit News last year, Clyde Wayne Crews, director of technology studies at the libertarian Cato Institute think tank, said, "Data-mining and biometrics, at least in principle, are about enhancing convenience, service, authentication and individual security more than they are about invading privacy." That's exactly right.

Let's keep real privacy risks in focus and merely apparent risks in the background, where they belong.

Time for Wells Fargo to start playing the offense.

Identity thieves decided to take Well Fargo's "hands on banking" a little too far and decided to get their "hands on" some of the company's computers and the customer data. Once again, computers were stolen from a 2nd company being outsourced by Wells Fargo. The PCs contained data on some customers of the bank, making this the 3rd time in a year and a half that Wells Fargo has had their customer data stolen in this manner.

So far, they haven't been made aware of any misuse of information resulting from any of these thefts. Guess they won't really do anything until they do hear of something.

Wells Fargo computers stolen.

Identity Management made easier...ideally.

Since the post on defining identity management solutions just days ago, I've come across another juicy bit along the same lines.

Microsoft drops some infromation on Gemini, the next version of Microsoft Identity Integration Server to be realeased in 2006 or 2007. It is supposed to provide a simple, cost-effective solution that let users manage the identity information themselves.

No talk yet as to whether it will be an option to incorporate the biometrics they have just started providing.

Simpler ID management readied by Microsoft.

What a smart gun you have.

Smart handguns are one of those things that are inevitable, they pop up in the news every so often just to remind us that they are still around. By the time they finally release them for commercial consumption, everyone will know what a 'smart gun' means.

And that's a good thing for New Jersey citizens, who by law will eventually only be offered smart guns because dealers and manufacturers won't be allowed to sell a gun unless it has a way of being personalized, or identifying its users.

Plus, research and development has just received a $1.1 million grant from the US Department of Justice to make sure they make their January 2006 deadline.

NJIT's smart gun moves closer to completion with $1.1 million grant.

Wireless fingerprinting devices ideal for law enforcement.

This might hold the most interest for me, considering that we are in Houston, but we will be seeing shortly a pilot program taking place with the local law enforcement. The Harris County Sheriff's office (Houston) purchased 1,000 handheld wireless AFIS (Automated Fingerprint Identification System) devices from Motorola. They did so at an event in Miami showcasing all the latest and greatest crime-fighting technology.

The AFIS devices are to be used when an officer pulls someone over, and they put their finger on the machine so that instantly it can tell if the person has any warrants or criminal history. Sometime long ago I recall these also being tested in other locations, but haven't heard much on it since.

Crime-scene pros learn new methods.

AOL could be getting in the game?

AOL is a consumer-centric business built on the needs of average home users. Of course they have different priorities than say a business has, but one thing is for sure whether the home user recognizes it or not - they need a good security system in place. And security across the whole scope of things - viruses, spyware, identity theft, hacking, etc. So AOL is meeting their needs slowly but surely by intensifying the technology.

They partnered with VeriSign to possibly create a 'safe chat room' where multi-factor authentication will determine if it really is a child logging on to specified chat rooms through a secure token. This is still in the early stages of creation, and AOL is very open to all types of authentication that a consumer may be adaptive too.

VeriSign and AOL explores 'safe chat room' idea.

Don't bother.

If this were true, I guess it would be pointless for us to exist.
At least - it may not be the whole answer, but it will help!
And then, isn't that a catch 22? In order to have security - you must be educated in it. If you don't bother to know how to protect yourself, there is no security!?

User Education is not the answer to security problems. Summary:
Internet scams cannot be thwarted by placing the burden on users to defend themselves at all times. Beleaguered users need protection, and the technology must change to provide this.