News and insight into biometric identification and authentication

The biometric battle

Tuesday, January 26, 2010

Biometric ID cards have recently received heat for whether they truly are the best security solution to identity theft. In an article on timesofmalta.com, the biometric ID card is compared to standard credit cards in terms of vulnerability and risk to data breaching.

The biometrics are electronically read and converted to a sequence of ones and zeros and sent to an authenticator to be compared with the sequence on file in the database. The argument remains how a series of numbers on a credit card, which has been stolen many a time, is all that different from a series of numbers making up a digital fingerprint.


Debaters are taking it a step further to say that while credit card companies have the ability to issue someone a new card number, an individual can’t exactly get new fingerprints if their information is stolen.

Protests in the US, Canada, New Zealand, Australia and the U.K. have deterred plans for ID card introduction. Current plans were predicting more than 85% of the worlds would utilize biometric documentation by 2012. [end] 

After a nearly three-year delay, the Algerian government has finally launched its biometric passport program.

Magharebia reports that the biometric passports, which contain a contactless smart card chip that holds a digitized photo, fingerprints and signature, were supposed to be released in 2009. But the documents were delayed due to complexities with the operation of the project and the need to thoroughly research and analyze other countries’ experiences with biometric passports.

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The UK Border Agency has announced intentions to require applicants applying for six-month stays from outside the European Economic Area to use biometric residency permits starting at the end of February 2012, according to an HR Magazine article.

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The Malaysian Election Commission has decided to forego the use of the biometric voter verification system for the country’s upcoming elections, according to an article form The Star.

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In an effort to streamline passenger security, Jakarta, Indonesia’s Soekarno-Hatta Airport has opened the country’s first biometric immigration gate.

Fingerprint biometric identification provider BIO-key International, Inc. and Oakwell Engineering Limited partnered to create the new gate, designed for use by passengers with electronic passports. Passengers submit their e-passports and authenticate with a fingerprint.

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A new report on the market for biometric technology in India forecasted a 42.4% compound annual growth rate for the industry in the four year span. TechNavio, a market intelligence reporting company, reviews and forecasts the period of 2010 through 2014 from

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India’s government has called a truce in the ongoing argument between the Ministry of Home Affairs’s National Population Register (NPR) project and the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI), reports the Indian Express.

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