Biometrics Security News and Information

Just How Bankrupt Is California???

Ah Sunny California

Well, as we approach March in the next couple of day, the thoughts of warmer weather and longer days appears on everybody’s mind.  And of course, comes the thoughts of vacations, and being near beaches and water.  True, here in Chicago we have Lake Michigan.  But that pales in comparison to the thousands of miles of beach shoreline on the either coast of the United States, and all of that lovely, warm, blue water splashing about you.  So what I am thinking about?  Yep, you got it, sunny California.  In fact, after beautiful Anita and I are married, this will be one of the first trips that we take, to see her family out there:  my new brother in law and sister in law.  Can’t wait to spend time with them, try some new restaurants, and of course, try out the wineries. 

So with CA in as the backdrop, we now bring Biometrics to the forefront, which also takes place in the same geographic area.  Here we go:  “BIO-key International, Inc. (OTCBB:BKYI), a global leader in fingerprint biometric identification solutions and advanced mobile identification technology, today reported that the company has provided a mobile, state of the art, fingerprint biometric identity solution demo for the city clerk's office in Sacramento, CA. BIO-key, partnered with Fulcrum Biometrics to provide mobile fingerprint authentication for city staff processing acknowledgement and approval documents, utilizing the Apple iPhone. The city of Sacramento is in the testing stage and likely be the first city in the U.S. to employ finger biometric technology using a smartphone to meet city compliance requirements. If all goes as planned, implementation will be launched before 2013.”  (SOURCE:  http://www.findbiometrics.com/industry-news/i/9566/). 

My View

This bit of content is actually breaking news, believe it or not. Of course, there is nothing new with state governments using Biometrics, but the as you can see from the above quote, Sacramento could very well be headed to be the first city in the US to use Biometrics with a Smartphone, in order to meet compliance requirements.  And of course, what will the Smartphone be used?  Yep, the iPhone, of course.  To be honest, I am rather surprised to see California using Biometrics in a manner like this.  True, a bulk of the Biometrics Vendors are located out that way, but my impression of California was that it was so cash strapped and hungry for money that it could even barely pass its own budget.  And as far as I know, it is still probably in a huge deficit.  But if you think about it, the cost of this type of Biometrics technology has greatly come down in price, so who knows, perhaps they can afford after all. 

After these monetary issues, if this implementation goes through as planned by next year, this could serve a great example of a Biometrics use in the government.  And given how large the state of CA is, other states may follow quickly and adopt this same type of solution.  So, hey California may be backwards in its budget, but it couls serve as huge protégé for Biometrics. Interesting to see what happens.  And it should also be mentioned that the application this solution is developed for document security, which is making a limelight today, given the explosion in e-mail, text and IM transactions.  But another thought comes to when I write this Posting.  It seems as if though the iPhone is something that not only a lot of people use, but is also something I have been writing about in much greater frequency, especially when it comes to security. 

Now, I am not saying that the iPhone is insecure or anything like that, but I think the Biometrics Industry, not just here in the United States, but all over the world also, should try to forge some partnerships or something similar like that with Apple, in order to take advantage of this great market opportunity.  As more advances are made in it, especially in the way of apps, the need for security will be much greater, as I eluded in last week’s posting.  And remember, the iPhone is here to stay.  In my view, it is highly unlikely that any other device will break its market dominance. 

So if this is the case, why not jump on the band wagon and make some serious money?  But the Biometrics Vendors had better to be the early adopters here, before the pail is filled up.  And if a partnership can indeed be struck, it is very likely that Apple will come back to them for much more repeat business down the road.

A New App For The iPhone

Do You Have An iPhone?

OK, to continue with our theme of Smartphones, how many of you out there have an iPhone?  Well, why I even ask, I guess.  I am sure just about everybody out there has one.  Personally, I have seen the iPhone, but I am not too dazzled by it. It’s all this push button technology, and what happens if you drop it and the screen breaks?  You’re all done for. 

But anyways, I came across some interesting content today, a new app for the iPhone:  “KeyLemon S.A. is announcing today the launch of the iPhone application “LemonLogin”, probably the first password managers for the iPhone based on face recognition technology . . . As mobile phone users often change their location, “LemonLogin” can store multiple models of your face for every environment you will encounter. Of course, the face authentication process is fully customizable. Changing the detection threshold depends only on your convenience or security requirements. There is also other cool stuff to discover with “LemonLogin”, like the hijacker information storage or the customizable, drawing account design. This app will make all connections to your online accounts easier, more convenient and most importantly, secure.”  (SOURCE:  http://www.findbiometrics.com/industry-news/i/9563/).

My Take

Well, I do have to admit that it is a catchy name, the “Lemon Login”.  And to be honest, if it not had been for that name, I probably would not have perused through the article.  So, if it can catch my eye, I am sure it will probably do very well in terms of sales and revenue numbers down the road.  And really, there is nothing too new about using Facial Recognition either, although it has not been the technology of choice yet for the Smartphone industry.  Fingerprint Recognition rules the world here.  Although Facial Recognition has come a long way in terms of technological advancement in the past decade, I still question how reliable it is at such a small level.  Hmm, another thing I find kind of weird is that in the above quote, it mentions that Facial Recognition is being used to manage passwords? 

I thought it was supposed to be used in lieu of passwords.  OK, enough of my nitpicking at this.  While all of these apps are great and such, I do have some serious reservations about them.  To my knowledge, there is no cap on how much you can download onto your iPhone, of course, contingent upon how much memory it has.  But what about the Security of when the download actually comes onto your Smartphone?  Is this encrypted or not? Everybody is so worried about the actual device itself, I feel that that this part gets totally ignored in every respect.  Another reservation I have is that with so many apps coming out and being pumped onto the device, the whole thing will be mired down in it, and the apps themselves will pose a grave Security threat even to the Biometrics protection itself.  This is analagous to the software patches for the Windows operating systems. 

True, they have tons of inherent weaknesses, and the software patch is supposed to cure that.  But these patches have flaws them, which not only totally mire down the system, but pose an entirely new kind of threat on an existing one.  Another issue, what about battery management?  Remember the more apps you have and data bandwidth, the more drainage on the battery, and the more time spent on recharging the damn thing. 

I guess I am lucky with the phone I have .  . . an extremely basic one, and can go for days without having to be recharged.  Hmm, who knows, maybe this will be another application for the Biometrics Industry:  Creating software patches for downloadable apps for Smartphones, when they create technology to protect it . . . a true conundrum, and our thought for the week!

How Biometrics Like A Pregnancy?

A Huge Market

There is no doubt that the Smartphone market is growing exponentially every day, by leaps and by bounds, with new apps and downloads always coming out. How is one to keep up with all of this?  Don’t ask me, I would be totally lost with a Smartphone.  I like things simple and basic, that is why I have the most basic Verizon wireless device possible.  And to put some numbers to this growth, here are some stats from a market research organization based out of the United Kingdom:  “Goode Intelligence has revealed in its new analyst report Mobile Phone Biometric Security Analysis and Forecasts 2011-2015 that mobile phone biometric security products and services generated just over $30 million in 2011 and that the market will grow to over $161 million in revenue by 2015.”  (SOURCE:  http://www.biometricnewsportal.com/biometrics_news3.asp?articleid=267279&arttitle=Analysis predicts growth of biometric security products and services on mobile devices). 

According to the research, there are three primary reasons why this exploding trend will continue well into the future, and making it a $130 million market by 2016:

*The smartphone and all things related are basically becoming our shadow and our “second selves” in both our personal and work/office lives (this is also known as the “Bring Your Own Device Trend”);

*With technological advances in data storage and wireless connectivity, Smartphones are basically becoming the next generation of virtual offices;

*With all of these breakthroughs, there will be a strong need (actually very strong need) for security of the most ultimate forms possible (in other words, goodbye to the password).

So, according to this market research conducted, what is this ultimate form of security?  Well, take a guess, and it is Biometrics, of course, with no specific technology being cited as the primary driver.  The demand for Biometrics being used in conjunction with Smartphones comes will be for two primary areas:

*Actual Smartphone device protection;

*Providing authentication and identification services for log ons.

OK, so really nothing new about the above, right? It’s just all common sense, of course.  We are simply using “last century technology” to protect and fortify the most advanced technology which is available yet today.  Yes, a true conundrum.  But, as I was reading through this market research, there is one particular thing which caught my eye, and was the main motivation for this posting:  ““We believe a biometric groundswell is building for Smart Mobile Devices. The market is currently slow; but pressure is growing” said Alan Goode, author of the report and founder of Goode Intelligence . . .
“The conditions are ripe for rapid change; for biometrics to move from an ‘interesting concept’ to a 'must have' for all . . .” (SOURCE:  http://www.biometricnewsportal.com/biometrics_news3.asp?articleid=267279&arttitle=Analysis predicts growth of biometric security products and services on mobile devices). 

OK, so why is this of particular interest to me?  It is, because this has always seemed to be and still continues to the trend in Biometrics, and for the whole industry.  While growth and revenue projections are always extremely rosy, the actual pace of it is always slow.  Well, I should not say slow, the growth is always luke warm to moderate.  So, as you can see, there is a great big disconnect between predicted versus actual.  There are a couple of reasons for this:  1)  Current economic conditions (Biometrics is often viewed as a “luxury” item than a “necessity” in Econ 101 jargon); and 2)  Not to beat a dead horse, but user acceptance, especially here in the US. 

However, there now seems to be a newer trend which is emerging, and that is this disconnect seems to be shrinking, and eventually all of this pressure which is building up will soon explode for the Biometrics market.  And it is no doubt, that the Smartphone and Wireless markets are making this pressure even greater.  To use a crude analogy, think of a pregnant woman giving birth.  She maybe in labor and sheer pain for hours after hours, but after some time, the enormous pressure of all this ends immediately, and baby is born. 

So who knows when this will happen for Biometrics and our industry as a whole, but when our baby is born, believe me, it will happen in big way (and more than just 8-10 pounds, I am talking billions and billions of dollars).  To use another old colloqialism to illustrate, “when the bough breaks, the cradle will fall”.  And this fall for Biometrics will be a huge one.

The Future Of Travel At International Airports

Better Ways To Travel

Well, how was everybody’s holiday weekend?  Mine was pretty good.  I spent a lot of time working on my new article on Bio-Cryptography, studying for the CBP, turned 43 on Sunday, and of course spent time with beautiful Anita.  And yesterday, it will be five months from now when we will be getting married.  So, when I was at her house last night enjoying a wonderful pizza dinner, the talks of wedding planning continued, as well as our honeymoon. Speaking of which, I still need to book the airline tickets. So with this theme in mind of traveling to Florida it is no surprise that I came across a Biometric related topic on this issue. 

And yep you got it, it hast to do with the e-Passport, and a take off from that:  “"The mandatory implementation of e-Passports for ICAO member countries by 2015 and rising passenger throughput will trigger wider adoption of e-Gate systems," says Frost & Sullivan Industry Analyst Dominik Kimla. "The e-Gate system adoption will partially be an outcome of the successful implementation of e-Passports and e-Visas and it is vital for managing passenger flows more efficiently at border check points. . . although the e-Passport segment is likely to remain the largest in the total border control market, the e-Gate segment will be the fastest growing between 2011 and 2019. While the e-Gate segment's total share is anticipated to increase from 14.2 per cent in 2010 to 37.7 per cent in 2019, e-Passport's is expected to decrease from 69.2 per cent to 51.6 per cent during the same period.”  (SOURCE:  http://www.findbiometrics.com/industry-news/i/9562/).

My Take

Now, the e-Passport is nothing new, I have written tons of content on it, I think back in 2009 (you can search for all of this using the Google search feature).  Many countries are using it, and some are not. The majority of the countries that are using it are in Europe, the Middle East, and primarily Asia, primarily the Pacific Rim countries.  I think we have started to use it here in the United States, but of course as usual, adoption has been slow.  But, in this article I saw today, there are some differences than from what I have written about before:

*The e-Passport market is expected to grow by at least 6 times by 2019 (revenues then are projected to be almost $9 million versus the $2 million it is now);

*A new application of the e-Passport is the e-Gate, which will be deployed at airports, in order to help facilitate and expedite entry and exits into other countries of destination;

*To much of my surprise, the ICAO is now mandating countries whom are a member to actually adopt the e-Passport infrastructure by 2015 (this is the first time I have come across anything like this);

*The e-Passport and the e-Gate is or will be part of an overall border control security solution for many countries. But as solid as the growth will be for the e-Passport, the growth rate for the e-Gate is expected to be even stronger (by 2019, the anticipated growth rate will be at almost 40%);

*By 2020, the number of internationals is expected to reach almost 2 billion people (to get a gauge of this number, the population of India will probably soon reach this amount).

So, yea, we have these impressive these great and impressive stats that everything will be golden, and there will be a ton of revenues.  But, there is one thing I saw in this content, which I greatly appreciated, and that is, the bleak side of this news was also presented, something you don’t see too often.  And what is this bad news? Something I have been saying before:  The adoption of the e-Passport and so forth has been hampering the growth of the e-Passport, and all of its related applications. 

Put even more specifically:  “The negative association of fingerprint identification with criminal investigations have slowed down the adoption of this form of identification. Further, they have indicated a reluctance to adopt the technology due to privacy and civil liberties concerns regarding data storage, the vulnerability of the data to theft and abuse and the implications of false positives and false negatives.”  (SOURCE:  http://www.findbiometrics.com/industry-news/i/9562/). 

So what are the Biometrics Vendors supposed to do?  Well, go back to the basics:  1)  Take efforts to allay these fears amongst the public; and 2)  Rather than dazzling people with the technology, show them how to use it and the positive ROI they will get from it.  Sounds simple right?  Maybe not enough yet, as it is reflected in the very poor adoption rates, at least here in the US.  In the end, Biometrics is just unlike other things in life:  As advanced it might be, it still needs the very old world school methods of marketing.  I wonder, could that very well be its strongest, but yet most hidden vulnerability which will forever shake the industry???

What We Can Learn From Canada - Security

A Continuation Of The Last Post

Remember, my last posting which was about automated voting, using Biometrics???  Well today, we touch upon another political hot button issue.  I am not so sure if it is going to be as hot this year, given the economy, and everybody worried about Greece going under.  But, it has been in past previous elections.  In fact, nobody really addressed the issue until it became fodder for the talking heads as election time quickly neared.  But, the one person who addressed this issue almost on a daily basis was Lou Dobbs, formerly of CNN. Remember this guy? 

True, he was harsh and could learn some tact, but he hit upon the issues which affected us everyday Americans.  He was, in my view downright honest, and an advocate for the middle class.  And this issue was near and dear to his heart.  So, what am I talking about?  I am talking about illegal immigration and border control.  This is a topic I have written about before on some occasions, and I have aired my feelings on the subject on many a time.  To make it short, the United States has amongst the most poorly protected border probably in the entire world.  We have two great examples to the north and to the south of us.

The US-Mexican border is hardly anything, and all one has to do is look at the mere statistics to see how many people illegally cross over the border into the US, and essentially steal our own jobs, and totally escalate the cost of medical insurance bills.  Then look to our neighbor to the north, Canada, and we virtually have 3,000 miles of unprotected border.  In my view, this prime time, fertile ground for terrorist activities to breed.  While we here in the US suck about protecting our own borders from within, it seems like Canada is taking some proactive steps to protect their own. 

Here are some of the details of it:  “Legislation to protect the integrity of Canada's immigration system was introduced today by Citizenship, Immigration and Multiculturalism Minister Jason Kenney . . . The proposed measures include further reforms to the asylum system to make it faster and fairer, measures to address human smuggling, and the authority to make it mandatory to provide biometric data with a temporary resident visa application . . . The final component of the new legislation would give the Minister the authority to make it mandatory for visa applicants to provide biometric data (i.e., fingerprints, photograph) to visit Canada. Documents can be forged or stolen, whereas biometric data provide greater certainty, confirming the identity of applicants when they apply . . . "Biometrics will be an important new tool to help protect the safety and security of Canadians by reducing identity fraud and identity theft," said Minister Kenney. "As fraudsters become more sophisticated, biometrics will improve our ability to keep violent criminals and those who pose a threat to Canada out. In short, biometrics will strengthen the integrity of Canada's immigration system while helping facilitate legitimate travel." (SOURCE:  http://www.findbiometrics.com/industry-news/i/9556/). 

My Views

OK, now I am not going to hash this legislation apart, because I am not a political analyst.  But after reviewing the above quote, one can clearly see that it is targeted at reforming the current refugee and asylum seeking processes people use to enter Canada.  There is no doubt that the Canadian people are much more compassionate lot than we are for welcoming visitors in need, but there are of course people which abuse this leniency which Canada possesses, and these are just reforms to help mitigate that.  Now, you may be wondering where the Biometric component in all of this is. 

Well, look at the last part of the above quote.  There are plans to make a strong stance towards using Biometrics in the visa application process, and to try to keep the bad people out.  In this regard, really any Biometric will work, but most likely it will be some combination of facial/iris/fingerprint recognition.  And really, there is nothing new about using these Biometrics in the visa application process in order to visit another country.  A lot of other countries are doing this, even us (though I still seriously question if we are doing it right).  So, as you can see from this content, one can make inferences that I am anti US and pro Canadian.  Really, I am not.  It just seems to me that the Canadians have it more “right” and are more with it than compared to us when it comes to border protection. 

And plus, their overall mindset for security is much proactive than what we have.  If the Canadian Government can successfully reform this major piece of legislation, and use Biometrics, it can serve as a shining example to us.  And truly, it will be a shame if we can’t adopt their best practices.  After all, as mentioned, they are our neighbor the north, they are within very easy distance (unlike Israel, or the United Kingdom whom I said the US should emulate also). 

Instead of the political bickering and backstabbing which is going to take place this year, hopefully our politicians can change their stance and tune to making this work for own security, by adopting a political platform of learning from “Our Neighbor To The North”.

Election Year Backstabbing And Bickering: Will It Ever End?

A Nasty Year

Well, we approach another President’s Day holiday weekend.  For me, it is another day off to get stuff done, and of course, continue with the wedding planning.  My beautiful fiancé and I are making great progress on this front.  It will be one spectacular wedding, that is for sure.  Well, we approach another election year this time around.  So who will the Republican front runner be?  Romney? Santorum? Gingrich?  God help is if it is any of them.  This has to be the closest, but yet, the nastiest Republican primaries I have ever seen.  Heck, even the Republican are totally unhappy with the picks of their own likes.  And with this, be guaranteed that this could very well turn out to be a very ugly election year.  Just be ready.  But, this election year could buck the trends. 

In any election year where the economy totally sucks, the incumbent is never reelected.  So, history would dictate that Obama won’t be president again.  But given the poor Republican choices we have, Obama may just win it out of voter spite not to see any of these Republican idiots become president.  But, other than these rotten egg politics, there is yet another issue which will be unearthed.  And that is, electronic voting and voter fraud. 

Today, I saw a news wire in which electronic voting was very successful:  “In this electoral event, without precedent in Venezuela, 268 coalition candidates were chosen: 17 candidates for state governors, 250 candidates for mayors and 1 presidential candidate, among 1,108 nominated individuals . . . The primary elections began at 8:00 am with the opening of the polling stations. Throughout the day, the candidates urged the voters to participate en masse, praising the virtues of the voting system provided by Smartmatic. At 5:00 pm, the polling stations closed and the tallying and audits began. The Coalition's Electoral Commission for Primary Elections got an official report at 9:00 pm, with over 95% of the certified precinct results transmitted . . . All representatives involved in the process concurred on the opinion that the system and the electoral technology developed by Smartmatic worked with swiftness, exactness and trustworthiness, thus ratifying the electoral solution that has been successfully employed in Venezuela since 2004.”  (SOURCE:  http://www.findbiometrics.com/industry-news/i/9547/).

My Take

Although the exact specifics were not given about the technology being used, it is very safe to assume that Biometrics was involved in the mix somewhere, most likely that of fingerprint recognition.  Upon reading this, it always amazes me how smoothly e-voting systems work in other countries around the world, but yet when tried here in the United States, it ends up in total calamity.  It stems from both privacy rights issues, and technological issues.  The primary vendor for the e-voting system here is Diebold.  And always, as November roles around, controversy about the technology makes its wave across FOX, CNN, you have it.  To me, I see nothing wrong with e-voting. I mean, first, it is a great way to confirm the identity of the voter (though once again, not 100% fool proof), and second, it speeds up the lines when voting.  Why wait for hours and hours with the traditional ballot and hole punching method, when you could get it done in just one iris scan? 

Or for that matter, why not use Biometrics to not only confirm our identity, but also link us up to a voting ballot directly?  Now, heck, that would be the ultimate in voting, to the core!  I guess the primary reason why other nations around the world are much more adaptive to e-voting and the use of Biometrics is that these people are finally being given a chance to vote, and to make their decision count in something for the betterment of their own homeland.  A lot of countries around the world do not have the same voting and the right to choose freedoms we enjoy here so much in the United States, so when given the chance, the mindset to jump on it is basically no question at all.  It’s like drinking water in a desert.  Once you finally find an oasis, you are not question how good or bad the water is, you are going to just drink because you are now given something you absolutely need. 

See, we here in the United States take a lot for granted.  And one of those is the right to vote.  We have choices as to how and to whom we can vote for, that is why we can question the use of any technology which are used in the voting process, Biometrics included.  We can complain, protest, argue, bicker about it all, without the fear of being arrested or hauled away (assuming of course, we do everything within the bounds of the law).  So, the moral of the story here is when you go vote this election year, and you are presented with an e-voting machine, don’t complain about it, just cherish your right to vote, which so many people around the world do not have. 

And remember TO VOTE.  Our forefathers shed a lot blood so that we may this freedom.  Whatever the outcome, we truly live in the greatest nation on earth:  Our very own United States of America.

The Final Frontier: Your Voice

A Major Competitor

Well, just a couple of days ago, I made mention of the fact that I had thought that Facial Recognition would be making its waves this year.  While I still think this is true, a technology could provide some very serious competition here, and that is namely Voice Recognition.  A recent market research report was just completed in the United Kingdom, between a security vendor known as “ValidSoft”, and a market research organization known as “Opus Research”. 

Their cumulative report is called “Voice Biometrics Authentication Best Practices: Overcoming Obstacles to Adoption”, and here are some of the details of it:  “The increasing use of, and security risks associated with, smartphones for payments and banking, along with heightened incidences of data theft and increasing awareness of fraud, highlight the need for banks, businesses and governments to take another look at methods of authenticating end users. It is no longer sufficient to merely secure hardware end points. Organizations want assurances that the individual at that end point is the person he or she claims to be . . . Voice biometrics has the potential to play an important role in doing this. The general public is becoming more familiar with using their voice for mobile search, device control and dictation and today’s study shows how, with the proper approach, voice authentication with soon follow. Voice biometrics can act as a part of a multi-layer authentication process to help reduce fraud and to confirm that the endpoint user is genuine.”  (SOURCE:  http://www.biometricnewsportal.com/biometrics_news3.asp?articleid=267150&arttitle=New study from Opus Research and ValidSoft suggests that voice biometrics will be central to future payments authentication if obstacles to adoption can be overcome).

My Take

There are some very compelling reasons to think that Voice Biometrics will truly take off this year, and if not, for sure in the next couple of years.  Here we go:

*Today, there are some 10 million Voice Recognition biometric templates, by 2015, it is expected that some 25+ million templates will be stored and in full use;

*The use of social media and all things mobile and wireless will be fueling this growth and demand (especially as the use Smartphones continues to explode at the rate it is);

*It is great for a multimodal security solution, especially if you want to ramp it up to four levels of authentication and verification (especially for financial institutions and brokerage firms).

But, according to this market research, just don’t expect Voice Recognition to fall in everybody’s lap.  A lot of work has to precipitate first, especially that by the Biometrics Industry:

*There needs to be balance between the specific security needs and the perceived ease of use and usefulness amongst the customers who plan to use it;

*All parties involved in the deployment and acquisition of the Voice Recognition system need to be engaged and taken into account for from the very beginning when the RFP is first signed;

*Especially with new customers, a strong level of trust needs to be built (not so much that the technology works, but to address privacy rights issues);

*The Voice Biometrics Vendors have to be proactive and look well into the future to take of their current and prospective customer’s needs.

To me, Voice Recognition makes perfect sense.  Although I am not a so called expert into it, I have been studying a lot about it for my CBP exam (to be taken in June of this year).  It is easy to implement, and above all, it is very cost efficient to deploy, as opposed to some of the other legacy biometric systems.  But above all, end user training is easy, and it shouldn’t take long for the adoption rate to increase. 

And as I write today’s posting, another thought comes across my mind.  Perhaps this year, looking at a macro level, perhaps the Behavioral Biometrics could very well overtake the Physical Biometrics in terms of adoption.  Why do I say this? Well, the only other Behavioral Biometric is Keystroke Recognition, and that is even easier to use than Voice Biometrics  . . . .

How Not To End Up Like The Guy In "Indiana Jones"

Catching The Bad Apples

In today’s educational world, gone are the days pretty much of the traditional brick and mortar learning.  That is, sitting in a classroom, taking notes, and having to walk back and forth to the next class.  Now, given the trends of virtualization, many things are appearing and transacted online, including education.  Now from the comforts of home and your PJ’s, you can earn an undergraduate, and even advanced degree in less time than it would take the traditional methods.  I do have my strong viewpoints on this, but I will save it for a later time.  Along with the craze of online education, comes the need to even further fortify the security of this whole thing, especially when it comes to verifying and identifying the legitimate online students. 

Remember, in the world of cyberspace, anything is possible.  So once again, it is Biometrics to the rescue:  “Biometric Signature ID, Inc. (BSI) announced today that their patented BioSig-ID dynamic biometric technology for student identity proofing has shown dramatic cost savings in several areas as documented at eduKan Consortium. The white paper case study report was released today showing a 405% Return-on-Investment (ROI), in less than two-thirds of a year of use. BSI is the only company with a patented software-only biometric technology that exceeds NIST accuracy requirements in the $12.6B Identity and Access Management (IAM) authentication market . . . eduKan went live in May 2011 with BioSig-ID as their student identity authentication system. Since then, BioSig-ID has replaced physical proctoring, can be used for all gradable events and authentication between levels of content, while enabling eduKan to maintain the highest level of compliance by also allowing them to randomly check who is logged into their LMS through authentication challenges. Another benefit of the system is the robust reporting that shows a student’s activity from re-sets and re-enrollments to suspicious activity such as IP address changes.”  (SOURCE: http://www.findbiometrics.com/industry-news/i/9550/). 

My Take

Obviously, the numerical benefits are great and quantified, as can be seen up above in the quote.  But there are also other advantages to using Biometrics for the world of online education, which include:

*Other huge cost savings which include exam proctoring involving faculty or staff (I guess in this regard, depending upon the institution, over time does not have to be paid);

*A huge reduction in turning the help desk staff into stressed out zombies as a result of being overwhelmed with support calls;

*Compliance with Federal Legislations and mandates regarding privacy and confidentiality of student information and records;

*Once again, huge budget savings.

Although the specific Biometric Technology is not mentioned, I am assuming that it has do most likely with either Keystroke Recognition or Signature Recognition, since it seems to be a software based solution.  There really is nothing magical about using Biometrics in the world of online education, as this is something I have written before.  But, there is one thing which caught my eye with this one. 

With this solution, it can also be used to track and trace IP address changes amongst all of the online students.  I think that this is a very powerful feature set to have, as another way to try to mask a student’s real identity is through the use of IP spoofing attacks, and trying to conduct IP masqeurading schemes.  But really, in the end to analogize from the famous Indiana Jones movie where the guy was shot square in the chest after trying to fight off Indy Jones with a bunch of karate moves, who is say a student can’t just enter another student’s house, sit in their same chair, and take the online exam?  IP spoofing techniques cannot catch this one. 

But remember, as I eluded to before, anything in  cyberspace is possible, and there will never be any really, full 110% protection. Perhaps the best we can do here is 90%.  But hey, that is better than none at all . . .

The Wave Of The Future - 2013

What Will It Be This Year?

In my so many plus years of writing now, especially over the last two or three ones, it always seems like that there is a particular type of Biometric Technology which makes its splash consistently throughout the year.  A couple of years ago, it was Iris Recognition, and just last year, and even coming into the start of this year, Vein Pattern Recognition has made its waves.  Well now, we might see something totally different happen this year.  True, we are still very early in the year, but if the news headlines hold out well into the fall time, Facial Recognition could win my accolades of the technology of the year.  I am basing this of course, on two headlines which just came out in the news wires just in the last couple of days.  Here we go:

A New Value Added Reseller Announced

“AOptix Technologies, Inc., (AOptix) (www.aoptix.com), a leading developer of advanced biometrics-based identity solutions, today announced that SITA, the world's leading specialist in air transport communications and information technology, has become an AOptix Value Added Reseller (VAR) partner. SITA has more than 2,700 customers in over 200 countries and territories across 300 airport locations worldwide. Almost every airline and airport in the world does business with SITA . . . leveraging the AOptix InSight iris recognition and face biometric technology, SITA will be working with airport, airline and government customers to deploy automated solutions that deliver, fast, accurate and effortless identity screening to expedite passenger flows at airports and borders.”  (SOURCE:  http://www.findbiometrics.com/industry-news/i/9545/).  By getting SITA to be a VAR, this Biometrics Vendor for sure now will have full grasp of a much bigger market in pretty much all over the world, at virtually each and every major international airport.  The above statistics speak it all.  Funny, thing, I remember doing an MBA project on SITA back in the late 90’s.  Boy, they have been around for a long time.  No wonder they have such great market penetration capability.

A Strategic Partnership In The Making

“View Systems, Inc., a security solutions provider, announced a partnership with facial recognition company National Security Resources (NSR) . . . View Systems announces that the companies are working together to develop and deliver an integrated solution as the first combined technology product line. We are integrating NSR's advanced "scan and match facial recognition" ability into our concealed weapons detection ViewScan. NSR is famous for positively identifying Bin Laden during the capture on the fly while the Navy Seal had his hand on the trigger transmitting the pictures to decision makers via satellite. NSR is the choice of United States Marshals for facial recognition.”  (SOURCE:  http://www.findbiometrics.com/industry-news/i/9546/).  Well, this type of partnership is for sure going to get some great recognition, with stuff about Bin Laden up in the above quote.  Although the specifics on the new technology was not completely disclosed, one can safely guess it has to with increasing the matching power of Facial Recognition by a much larger magnitude, and at a much greater distance than ever before.  It also seems that the primary markets for this new solution will be education centers, legal institutions, and corporate America.

So, as you can see, there is a common thread here.  The partnerships and the VAR’s announced have to heavily with airport security, and physical access entry at the major locales here in the United States, and abroad.  If you were to synthesize this even further, the primary goal is verification and/or identification of a large group of people, at very far distances.  In other words, trying to, for example, tracking down a terror suspect at a major international airport, before they do their large scale damage to innocent human beings. 

Although I have been a skeptic of Facial Recognition for quite some time, truth to be told, I am changing my viewpoints on it.  True, there are inherent weaknesses and flaws in it which need to be worked on, but the technology has truly advanced within and during these past two decades.  And Facial Recognition is probably the true technology which can ID or verify an individual in a huge massing of people. 

The only other technology which can do that is Iris Recognition, and put the two together, you have one powerful security system. And add in Gait Recognition once it becomes viable enough, and heck, you have one superb tri modal security solution.  So, will Facial Recognition win my 2012 Biometric Technology of the Year Award? All I can say is wait until 2013!

A Breakthrough For Forensics Investigations

Fingerprints And More Of It

Since the era of law enforcement, and the creation of laws, there is one symbol on our body which represents it all.  And that is the traditional fingerprint.  In all logos and television programs, commercials, products and services, etc. it is the fingerprint which has been the everlasting trademark of the good guys versus the bad guys.  Even in the world of Biometrics, it is Fingerprint Recognition which is the de facto representation of the technology, whether people conceive it to be bad or good.  But, keep in mind, most of these require a snapshot of the fingerprint at one point in time . . . but what about fingerprints which are left behind at a crime scene? 

These are known as “Latent Fingerprints”, and have been the subject of scientific research and controversy for a very long time.  But truth be told, latent fingerprints are very important clues, especially in the world of forensics.  Although I am not an expert in forensics, I know that there are many tools out there which forensics experts use to capture these latent fingerprints. 

But the world of Biometrics has never really addressed this issue, up until possibly now:  “Linde Gases announced earlier this week a significant leap forward in fingerprint identification technology through the introduction of its ground breaking automated latent mark visualisation system, the ADROIT ™ FC 300 . . . Fingerprint identification, arguably the most common forensic evidence used worldwide, can now benefit from increased precision and reduced complexity through this dry, non-contact technology which uses a gaseous application process for developing latent fingerprints. The system eliminates both the hazardous carrier solvents used in traditional processing methods and the need for physical application of these materials by dipping, spraying, brushing and drying . . . The Linde technology applies detection chemicals by sublimation and dilution in a proprietary carrier gas injected into a low pressure environment. The gas mixture expands, uniformly coating all exposed surfaces (the evidence), thus depositing a thin film which adheres to, or chemically reacts with, the print residue making it visible to the unaided eye or under alternate light source (ALS) or laser excitation.”  (SOURCE:  http://www.biometricnewsportal.com/biometrics_news3.asp?articleid=267239&arttitle=Linde launches revolutionary latent fingerprint development technology).

My Thoughts

Well, I have to be honest, this is probably the first time I have read anything this conclusive and definite about the Biometrics Industry taking such an active role in latent fingerprints.  And really, it is about time as the fears mount about latent fingerprints being left behind on the optical sensors, and having that ability to spoof a fingerprint recognition system (though I have my serious doubts, about this still).   The exact details of how all of this works can be seen up above in the quote, no need to rehash it again.  But from a first peruse at the content, this solution has a number of key benefits, which include:

*With the gasses present in this solution, there is no need to lug around other hazardous chemicals to wipe up the latent fingerprints (I am assuming that this is a self carrying unit, so how much poisonous gas can there be?);

*There is no need to any type or kind of spraying, dipping, or drying, or brushing, etc, as opposed to the techniques used in traditional forensics;

*The results are very easily and quickly displayed, as this solution is designed to be both the scientist and forensics investigator in mind;

*Any storage problems, especially with regards to that of the environment and safety are greatly reduced;

*As a result of this solution, the chain of custody regarding latent fingerprints should be much easier enforced now (this is a huge contention when presenting this type of evidence in a court of law);

*This solution requires no direct contact, and can also be used on both porous and non porous materials;

*And more!

As mentioned, at the present time, Biometrics requires just images to create the respective templates at just one point in time, which is pretty much right now. Eventually, this technology will be called upon to aid with forensics, so for sure, this is a great start in the area.  But remember, it is not just latent fingerprints which will be important in Biometrics, also hand prints will be as well, and perhaps even the vein pattern prints left at a crime scene (though this type of evidence is pretty remote to collect). 

Hopefully, the concepts from this solution as described here can be used in these areas as well, thus only fortifying Biometrics just that much more not only as a security technology, but also as an investigative tool.