NEWS ...Continued from page 3 the removal of criminal aliens in the custody of state and local law enforcement agencies. The DHS notes: “The reality is the programme has attracted a great deal of criticism, is widely misunderstood, and is embroiled in litigation; its very name has become a symbol for general hostility toward the enforcement of our immigration laws.” The DHS has directed US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to discontinue Secure Communities and says that ICE should put in its place a programme that will continue to rely on fingerprint-based biometric data submitted during bookings by state and local law enforcement agencies to the FBI for criminal background checks. However, unless an alien poses a demonstrable risk to national security, enforcement actions through the new programme will only be taken against aliens who are convicted of specifically enumerated crimes. This new programme will be referred to as the Priority Enforcement Programme (PEP). At the same time the DHS is seeking the help of the biometrics industry to improve the Office of Biometric Identity Management (OBIM)’s identification capabilities and has issued a Request for Information (RFI) to collect information from industry on current and near future technologies including mature modifiable COTS products. The Secure Identity & Biometrics Association (SIBA) and the Security Industry Association (SIA) in the US have jointly formed the Airport Entry and Exit Working Group and released the Identity and Biometric Entry and Exit Solutions Framework for Airports to support the DHS Apex Air Entry and Exit Reengineering (AEER) Project. The Framework urges US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) to deploy a cost-effective and efficient airport biometric exit programme. * In India, the government is planning to make its biometrically supported unique ID Aadhaar mandatory for passport issue, while Russia Today reports that Russia is to begin biometric registration of all foreign citizens and persons without citizenship who receive entry visas, according to a new order signed by President Putin. The proposal was put forward by the Foreign Ministry in reply to the planned
January 2015
introduction of universal fingerprinting of Russian wishing to enter the EU in 2015.
ocular
Eye-based biometrics see increased interest
University who co-chairs the OASIS IBOPS Technical Committee. “The architecture will be language-neutral, allowing REST, JSON, and Secure Socket Layers to provide the communication interface. IBOPs will be built on the servlet specification, open secure socket layers, Java, JSON, REST, and Apache Solr.”
payments
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ye-based biometrics are seeing increased interest from researchers. US researchers are developing a threelayered, multi-biometric approach that tracks the movement of the eye globe and its muscles, and monitors how and where a person’s brain focuses visual attention, in addition to scanning patterns in the iris. Supported by the National Science Foundation (NSF), computer scientist Oleg Komogortsev and a team at Texas State University are developing ocular biometrics with technology that can detect not only the identity of the person, but can also assess the state of the person, including the individual’s level of fatigue or stress. Separately, PatentlyApple has reported that Google now has a second patent on iris scanning technology based on a contact lens system.
standards
OASIS works on IBOPS standard for online transactions
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inancial services companies, software providers, government agencies and academics are workING WITHIN THE /!3)3 OPEN STANDARDS consortium to define a server-based, biometric identity standard that will address online transactions. The new /!3)3 )DENTITY "ASED !TTESTATION AND /PEN %XCHANGE 0ROTOCOL 3PECIFICATION )"/03 4ECHNICAL #OMMITTEE WILL ENAble identity assertion, role gathering, multi-level access control, assurance, and auditing. “IBOPS will apply to all data, not just biometrics,” says Scott Streit of Villanova
MasterCard and Visa look to upgrade payment security with biometrics
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asterCard has outlined its vision for online payments beyond passwords. It has been working with Visa on a new authentication standard, which when adopted, will be a wholesale upgrade to online payment security. MasterCard’s approach is to use richer cardholder data, which should result in far fewer password interruptions at the point of sale. When an authentication challenge is needed, cardholders will be able to identify themselves with one-time passwords or fingerprint biometrics. In October 2014 MasterCard and Zwipe partnered for the launch of a contactless payment card featuring an integrated fingerprint sensor. MasterCard has been piloting commercial tests for facial and voice recognition apps to authenticate cardholders and conducting trials of a wristband that authenticates a cardholder through their unique cardiac rhythm. This comes as Hyprkey launches WhiteLabel HYPR-3 allowing biometric access to e-wallets. HYPR-3 will ship in June 2015 and will support Bitcoin and credit cards. MasterCard and Zwipe partnered for the launch of a contactless payment card featuring an integrated fingerprint sensor
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Biometric Technology Today
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