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AuthenTec partners to bring fingerprint access to mobile mainstream
NEWS/COMMENT ....Continued from page 3 Supported by US Government agency Technical Support Working Group (TSWG) and BAE Systems, GSC attracted more than 200 companies from 30 countries. “This is a great recognition for Agnitio’s team. With this award the jury also recognises the power of voice biometrics as a technology that enables unique capabilities in the security space,” says Emilio Martinez CEO of Agnitio.
mobile
Ice Cream Sandwich feeds face recognition debate
G
oogle has teamed up with Samsung to unveil Face Unlock on the Galaxy Nexus. The smartphone is the first with Ice Cream Sandwich, a new version of Google’s Android mobile operating system. Face Unlock lets users unlock the phone by showing it their face. Hot on the heels of the launch came widespread reports that the system could be breached by presenting it with a photo of the user when he or she was not present Following the launch Senator John Rockefeller asked the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to examine the privacy implications of face recognition technology, according to the Washington Post. Rockefeller asked the FTC to provide a report on its findings after the agency’s workshop on the subject scheduled for 8 December. German authorities have gone a step further, according to Deutsche Welle, which reports that Hamburg’s state data protection authority has said that it is preparing legal action against Facebook for the company’s use of automatic facial recognition features. Face tagging is moving to the mobile device, however, and it looks likely that Facebook will be just one way people can use facial recognition to tag people. A new iPhone application, Tagg, uses offline facial recognition to detect the faces of friends in photos, so users can tag them and upload them to Facebook or post them to Twitter.
AuthenTec partners to bring fingerprint access to mobile mainstream
F
ingerprint access to the mobile phone looks set to become main-
12
Biometric Technology Today
stream technology with the teaming up of AuthenTec and Japanese giant NTT DOCOMO. Mobile wallet purchases can be authenticated with AuthenTec’s AES1750 smart fingerprint sensor. NTT DOCOMO has more than 500,000 Osaifu-Keitai payment terminals in Japan which now accept payment via NFCenabled mobile phones, with terminal locations at many retail chains, convenience stores, restaurants, subway terminals and vending machines AuthenTec has also gone into partnership with Oberthur Technologies, provider of security and identity management solutions, to create SIM/Universal Integrated Circuit Card (UICC) based designs that make NFC mobile payment via smartphones faster and more secure. The companies will combine their expertise in SIM/UICC security and fingerprint identity to jointly create solutions that enhance the speed and security of mobile payment transactions.
retail
AVT and Medbox to secure big ticket retailing
A
VT has partnered with MedBox to provide a line of Secure Automated Retailing Systems that feature MedBox’s biometric fingerprint recognition system. AVT previously worked with MedBox to integrate its system into automated prescription medicine dispensing machines. AVT is now using the technology to create secure automated retailing solutions for companies that want to sell high-ticket items in a self-service automated environment, and need extra verification to prevent credit card fraud. Current projects include systems for retailers in the jewellery and watch industry.
COMMENT The Indian government is building the world’s largest biometric database, containing the personal information of nearly 1bn people. In the US, the FBI is building a biometric database of millions of faces and fingerprints. In Europe biometric information is stored on an industrial scale for on passport and visa requirements. Biometric technology has arrived and with it concerns about the implications of breaches of large-scale systems, fuelled by reports that in Israel authorities have arrested a man on suspicion of the theft of Israel’s biometric database in 2006. The man, a contract worker, is alleged to have had access to the database, which is part of the country’s population registry, through his office. The data was then posted in a searchable format online. Most discussions about security centre on the malicious hacker but the concern here is that this appears to have been an inside job. It would seem to be a realistic concern that this may just as easily happen elsewhere. John Trader of M2SYS and Ravi Das have collaborated on a white paper, ‘The Perception of Biometrics in the USA’ looking into the reasons why in the authors’ opinion the US lags behind the rest of the world when it comes to the usage and implementation of biometrics. The paper finds these reasons
include concerns about privacy and security and a lack of standards As the authors point out, throughout the entire world, there has been a greater adoption rate of biometrics in the developing regions such as Africa and Asia, than the developed nations of Europe and the US as citizens use the technology to access entitlements they may not otherwise be able to access. In the US and Europe, citizens take for granted access to benefits to which they are entitled and have the luxury of fears of privacy being violated, the authors argue, concluding, “Perhaps it is when our governments go deeper into debt and we no longer receive our benefits and entitlements, will we know what it means not to be recognised as individuals. Then, we will truly understand the need for biometrics not just from a security perspective, but from the social perspective as well.” Acceptance may not rest on such a catastrophic scenario, however, as there are strong indications that acceptance is growing in the US. The latest Unisys Security Index finds roughly half of Americans already willing to provide personal biometric information to enhance security around accessing government benefits and services (53%) with 21% willing to provide biometric information as part of logging onto social media sites like Facebook. Tracey Caldwell
November/December 2011
mobile
Ice Cream Sandwich feeds face recognition debate
G
oogle has teamed up with Samsung to unveil Face Unlock on the Galaxy Nexus. The smartphone is the first with Ice Cream Sandwich, a new version of Google’s Android mobile operating system. Face Unlock lets users unlock the phone by showing it their face. Hot on the heels of the launch came widespread reports that the system could be breached by presenting it with a photo of the user when he or she was not present Following the launch Senator John Rockefeller asked the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to examine the privacy implications of face recognition technology, according to the Washington Post. Rockefeller asked the FTC to provide a report on its findings after the agency’s workshop on the subject scheduled for 8 December. German authorities have gone a step further, according to Deutsche Welle, which reports that Hamburg’s state data protection authority has said that it is preparing legal action against Facebook for the company’s use of automatic facial recognition features. Face tagging is moving to the mobile device, however, and it looks likely that Facebook will be just one way people can use facial recognition to tag people. A new iPhone application, Tagg, uses offline facial recognition to detect the faces of friends in photos, so users can tag them and upload them to Facebook or post them to Twitter.
AuthenTec partners to bring fingerprint access to mobile mainstream
F
ingerprint access to the mobile phone looks set to become main-
12
Biometric Technology Today
stream technology with the teaming up of AuthenTec and Japanese giant NTT DOCOMO. Mobile wallet purchases can be authenticated with AuthenTec’s AES1750 smart fingerprint sensor. NTT DOCOMO has more than 500,000 Osaifu-Keitai payment terminals in Japan which now accept payment via NFCenabled mobile phones, with terminal locations at many retail chains, convenience stores, restaurants, subway terminals and vending machines AuthenTec has also gone into partnership with Oberthur Technologies, provider of security and identity management solutions, to create SIM/Universal Integrated Circuit Card (UICC) based designs that make NFC mobile payment via smartphones faster and more secure. The companies will combine their expertise in SIM/UICC security and fingerprint identity to jointly create solutions that enhance the speed and security of mobile payment transactions.
retail
AVT and Medbox to secure big ticket retailing
A
VT has partnered with MedBox to provide a line of Secure Automated Retailing Systems that feature MedBox’s biometric fingerprint recognition system. AVT previously worked with MedBox to integrate its system into automated prescription medicine dispensing machines. AVT is now using the technology to create secure automated retailing solutions for companies that want to sell high-ticket items in a self-service automated environment, and need extra verification to prevent credit card fraud. Current projects include systems for retailers in the jewellery and watch industry.
COMMENT The Indian government is building the world’s largest biometric database, containing the personal information of nearly 1bn people. In the US, the FBI is building a biometric database of millions of faces and fingerprints. In Europe biometric information is stored on an industrial scale for on passport and visa requirements. Biometric technology has arrived and with it concerns about the implications of breaches of large-scale systems, fuelled by reports that in Israel authorities have arrested a man on suspicion of the theft of Israel’s biometric database in 2006. The man, a contract worker, is alleged to have had access to the database, which is part of the country’s population registry, through his office. The data was then posted in a searchable format online. Most discussions about security centre on the malicious hacker but the concern here is that this appears to have been an inside job. It would seem to be a realistic concern that this may just as easily happen elsewhere. John Trader of M2SYS and Ravi Das have collaborated on a white paper, ‘The Perception of Biometrics in the USA’ looking into the reasons why in the authors’ opinion the US lags behind the rest of the world when it comes to the usage and implementation of biometrics. The paper finds these reasons
include concerns about privacy and security and a lack of standards As the authors point out, throughout the entire world, there has been a greater adoption rate of biometrics in the developing regions such as Africa and Asia, than the developed nations of Europe and the US as citizens use the technology to access entitlements they may not otherwise be able to access. In the US and Europe, citizens take for granted access to benefits to which they are entitled and have the luxury of fears of privacy being violated, the authors argue, concluding, “Perhaps it is when our governments go deeper into debt and we no longer receive our benefits and entitlements, will we know what it means not to be recognised as individuals. Then, we will truly understand the need for biometrics not just from a security perspective, but from the social perspective as well.” Acceptance may not rest on such a catastrophic scenario, however, as there are strong indications that acceptance is growing in the US. The latest Unisys Security Index finds roughly half of Americans already willing to provide personal biometric information to enhance security around accessing government benefits and services (53%) with 21% willing to provide biometric information as part of logging onto social media sites like Facebook. Tracey Caldwell
November/December 2011