The Biometric Daily

SAN JOSE - Fast-pass security lanes finally landed at Mineta San Jose International on Tuesday, making it the first airport on the West Coast to give fliers a quick route through busy security lines.
Now all that South Bay travelers need is their "Clear cards," the government-approved cards that allow them to jump ahead of other passengers at crowded checkpoints -- for a price.
They're still not in the mail, said Steve Brill, chief executive of Verified Identity Pass, the New York-based company that is operating the program in San Jose.
"I'm just guessing, but it's possible they won't get their cards until Thursday or Friday at the earliest," he said, "or early next week."
For security reasons, the company is not mailing cards until fast-pass lanes open at each airport. But Brill gave a demonstration to reporters and passengers at Terminal C, showing how cards read and compare their stored information against a fingerprint scan before approving a passenger.
San Jose has six kiosks installed, two at Terminal A and four at Terminal C. Lanes opened last week at New York's JFK International Terminal 7 and Indianapolis International. Cincinnati-Northern Kentucky International will launch on Thursday.
Read full article here

When it comes to fraud and identity theft, one rule remains constant - fraudsters will follow the money. As mobile devices are ramping up incidents of mobile virus and mobile malware are likewise on the upswing.
New research from TowerGroup finds that 2007 will be the year that new banking and payment initiatives in the mobile channel will be increasingly targeted by those engaged in fraud and identity theft, with the goal of infecting or otherwise compromising mobile devices. These targets will include deployments where a mobile device acts as a credit or debit card.
Like malicious software (or "malware") in the wired world, mobile viruses are small programs that infect a host device. While most mobile phones are potential targets, smart phones and wireless PDAs as particularly attractive to fraudsters given their advanced capabilities to support PC-like applications including Web browsing and instant messaging.-TowerGroup believes that current mobile commerce initiatives emerging from the financial services industry lack a reasonable and justifiable focus on mobile malware.
Read the full PR here

Labels: banking, biometrics, mobile security

Hitachi is about to launch a notebook with build in finger vein scanner. The Flora SE210 laptop has not only a state of the art biometric sensor but is also attractively priced and has powerfull specs. The ultra secure subnote has embedded XP, a 12,1"INCH TFT screen weighs approx. 1.5 kg.
The finger vein scanning technique is superior to normal fingerprint recognition. It's fast, highly accurate and user friendly.

The notebook is available from 1st of december and the price starts at 160.000 Yen (about $1400).

Fujitsu Computer Systems today announced the sleek and light ultra-portable LifeBook(R) P7120 notebook designed for professionals on the go. With a cool black exterior, slimmer silhouette and a 10.6-inch LED lit widescreen display, the successor to the LifeBook P7010 notebook merges a lightweight form factor with performance, long battery life and total security. The sbunote is powered by Powered by an Intel(R) Pentium(R) M Processor Ultra Low Voltage 753 (1.20 GHz) and Intel 915GMS chipset. With the Trusted Platform Module (TPM), a combination of an integrated security chip with sophisticated data encryption software and built-in biometric fingerprint swipe sensors included as standard features, the LifeBook P7120 notebook offers safeguards to prevent unauthorized data access. Hard disk drive shock absorbers reduce vibration to ensure higher data availability and prevent losses. And with an eye toward the future, the LifeBook P7120 notebook is VoIP-ready, with built-in dual array microphones and noise-canceling software. The LifeBook P7120 notebook, with pricing starting at $1,699(3) for a base configuration, is available now.

Biopassword Inc. raised $8 million in a second round of funding.
The Biopassword B-Indentified products are based on their dynamic keystroke algorithm. By combining this algorithm with the various network software, a cheap and easy to install biometric security layer can be added to the normal network authentication procedure. Because of the fact that no additional hardware is needed, this software solution is a good alternative for the more expensive hardware based biometric network security solutions.
If 90% of the population is recognized, the ROI is far better than most "conventional" biometric systems. So do we have a winner on our hands? Download a demo and see for yourself.

Great Britain is faced with an obscure case of identity theft. In this case the ploy of stealing the identity of a dead baby was copied from Frederick Forsyth's thriller The Day of the Jackal. The "lord" managed to live on with the stolen identity for more than 22 years. The fraud was discovered when a routine check showed that his passport was revoked in 2003 after a security trawl by the Passport Agency revealed an exact match with the Register of Deaths.
It will be interesting to see if the passport issuance systems in the various countries are or will be adapted in such a way that these situations are easy to detect. With a biometric passport people will not only be able to have a genuine "government certified" analog identity but an electronic identity as well. How's that for a responsibility?

By the end of the last century I had the privilege to be involved in one of the first pilots for the new biometric passports. Although the technology wasn't as advanced as most biometric readers today, the technology was the least of the problem.
The biggest problem for the government was to solve the businesscase.
Let's face it; only once a year you go on holiday to a foreign country and maybe once a year you sign an official document. The investments are hugh, PKI, smartcards, complex enrollment procedures etc, how can this investment be justified? One of the conclusions of the pilot was that there simply wasn't enough "government" related traffic to justify the introduction of an electronic ID on short term.
The turnaround for biometric passports came after 9/11. Suddenly the interest for having a solid business case for biometrics was gone. It was all about security. Governments worldwide were pushed into a race to be the first in having an electronic passport. Germany won.
But now, having the electronic ID, governments start to think about making more money with the thing.
Wouldn't it be nice to access your company's network with your wireless electronic passport? The HR doesn't need to file a copy anymore. Big Brother just checks your identity and allows you to go to work. Science fiction? No, these sort of applications will be developed the next 5 years. But I question whether we should be happy with it.

Privaris, a biometric technology provider, raised $15.7 million in a first round of funding. The Privaris solution has some intriguing features like wireless connections, RFID, onboard enrollment system etc.
Let's take a closer look at the product and the opportunities along with their competitors.
First of all the Privaris BPID (what's in a name?) consist of a 66 MHz ARM7 RISC processor, 512 KB onboard mMemory flash available for template, credential, and application storage. A biometric sensor 250 dpi 0.384 in. x 0.384 in (Authentec) and is powered through one userreplaceable CR2 lithium cell. All in a sturdy casing with the possibility to attache it to your keyring.
It furthermore has 3 LEDs (red, yellow,green), 1 push button (power) and communicates through the RF options Low-frequency RFID, HID, Kantech and Indala compatible (100 KHz to 150 KHz), and Bluetooth™ (2.4 GHz).
With the device you can open doors (using the existing infrastructure HID or else) or access networks, open garagedoors etc.
All in all a neat thing to hang with your keys although the costs seems a bit high ($175).

I first met IFkey about two years ago. Like Privaris they developed a wireless biometric Key. The key difference is that IFkey unlike Privaris choose to develop a transmitter (key) and receiver (keyhole). They communicate through encrypted Bluetooth. Like a normal key you can lend your transmitter for a certain period to your neighbor or familymember. Another benefit above the Privaris BPID is that the Key is powered through rechargable batteries. They can be simply charged through the detachable USB cable. When connected to a PC the Key functions as a normal fingerprintreader. So a lot of benefits above the BPID, on the other hand it only communicates through a proprietary receiver. And... the pricing is slightly higher due to the costs of the receiver.

So... who is going to buy this technology? Clearly both products are targeted at consumers, although the BPID will do well in physical access in the B2B market.
The consumer market hasn't started yet so both companies still have to wait for the big bang. The trouble with both concepts is the multifunctionality. The BPID wins here too. They only focus on sending a biometric fingerprint authenticated signal, leaving the integration with various environments to the integrators they only offer a RF signal. With the IFKey you need to install receivers.
Both concepts have their pro's and contra's but they pave the biometric way to consumer and that's great.