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US government to harmonise standards
PRODUCT NEWS / NEWS standards
id cards
PRODUCT NEWS • Speech solution provider Nuance Communications has unveiled its Automatic Password Reset module, with the aim of reducing the burden on IT help desks. With password changes within an organization accounting for the majority of calls into a help desk, using Nuance’s latest module means employees can reset security passwords for any networked device or application by using their voice and the company’s telephony system. The system utilises voice biometrics that identifies the caller in the system and allows for computer and other passwords to be changed. The Nuance Automatic Password Reset module is part of Nuance’s Employee Productivity Suite (EPS). • A new low power fingerprint sensor has been introduced by AuthenTec. The AES1711 is the latest in a series of fingerprint sensors targeted specifically for the mobile wireless market and offers an expanded input/output voltage range (1.8V to 3.3V), consuming 88 percent less power in finger detect mode than earlier models. Already designed into new mobile phones that will ship later this year, the AES1711 is ideally suited for external mounting on any mobile phone as well as other mobile devices, including GPS navigation devices and PDAs. Meanwhile, in other news, AuthenTec has announced that its fingerprint sensor has been integrated into the first fingerprint-enabled “global phones” offered by Fujitsu. • Hirsch Electronics has confirmed that its Verification Station’s biometric technology has passed the Transportation Security Administration’s (TSA) testing and was placed on its “Biometrics for Access Control” Qualified Products List (QPL). Hirsch developed the Verification Station, model family RUU, in conjunction with Cogent Systems. Hirsch’s RUU integrates Cogent’s ID-Gate biometric subsystem, one of only two products that met TSA’s testing requirements for airport physical access control. The biometrics in the Verification Station passed tests including requirements for a failure-to-enrol rate of less than 3 percent and a 99.86 percent operational availability rate. • The Public Review Draft of the International Symbology Specification – Datastrip 2D has been developed by AIM Global’s Technical Symbology Committee. Datastrip 2D is a variable-size, variable-density two-dimensional symbology. The bar code can encode text, binary and biometric data.
4
Biometric Technology Today
US government to harmonise standards
Steria pulls out of UK ID card scheme
T
S
he US government has issued a draft document that lists recommended standards to enable government agencies to easily share biometric data. The idea behind the initiative is sound. For example, the harmonization of standards use would ensure that biometric data on known or suspected terrorists collected by the Department of Defense in war zones are also useable by Department of Homeland Security’s screening operations at US border crossings. The initiative is being run by the White House’s National Science and Technology Council (NSTC) Subcommittee on Biometrics and Identity Management. It is requesting public comments on the draft by 10 March. NSTC has established a framework to reach interagency consensus on biometric standards for the federal government. It ensured that federal agencies such as the Departments of State, Justice, Defense and Homeland Security collect and exchange different types of biometric data in specific standardised formats. The standards registry is the result of interagency analysis and deliberation on numerous, often contradictory, standards currently available, and specifies which standards US government agencies should use. Membership on the subcommittee charged with drafting the standards registry included representatives from 15 different US government departments and agencies, and five different organizations in the Executive Office of the President. The NSTC Committee on Technology (COT) first established the subcommittee in 2002 to “advise and assist the COT, NSTC and other coordination bodies of the Executive Office of the President on policies, procedures and plans for federally sponsored biometric and identity management activities”. Specific sections of the registry recommend standards for data collection, storage and exchange; transmission profiles; requirements for identifying government employees and contractors; “plug and play” equipment standards; conformance and performance testing methodology standards and references. The standards registry is available at www.biometrics.gov/standards.
teria has taken the decision to withdraw from the UK’s biometricbased national ID card scheme. The company announced in a statement that: “Following a business review of the National Identity Scheme (NIS) framework procurement programme, Steria has decided to explore opportunities to work as a sub-contractor on the scheme, rather than as a prime contractor and has therefore withdrawn from this procurement as a prime contractor.” The news follows the withdrawal in January of Accenture and BAE Systems and now leaves just five potential suppliers – of whom “fourto-five” are expected to be successful in winning a framework contract. A spokesman for the Identity and Passport Service told Btt: “We are relaxed about this. Competitive dialogue for the National Identity Scheme framework procurement is continuing apace, and to schedule as set out in on the timeline set out in the framework prospectus in August. We have had a very healthy level of interest from high-calibre suppliers, and this is precisely why we have run the competitive dialogue over the last few months, to make sure we have the right suppliers in the right roles. IPS continues: “We are now set to issue invitations to tender next month and expect to award the framework contract in May to four or five prime suppliers. Those suppliers can choose to supplement their capabilities with subcontractors, and there could also be other contracts procured outside the framework which other firms would also be able to bid for.” The potential prime suppliers remaining from the original eight are: CSC; EDS; Fujitsu; IBM; and Thales. IPS will issue formal invite to tender next month and then the framework contract to four or five prime suppliers in May. Once the framework is in place IPS says it will immediately proceed with the first two procurements, which are: • The replacement of core Application and Enrolment processes for passports and the provision of desktop infrastructure for IPS; and • The replacement and upgrading of the existing systems for fingerprint matching and storage in connection with immigration and visa requirements and transition to the replacement service.
March 2008
id cards
PRODUCT NEWS • Speech solution provider Nuance Communications has unveiled its Automatic Password Reset module, with the aim of reducing the burden on IT help desks. With password changes within an organization accounting for the majority of calls into a help desk, using Nuance’s latest module means employees can reset security passwords for any networked device or application by using their voice and the company’s telephony system. The system utilises voice biometrics that identifies the caller in the system and allows for computer and other passwords to be changed. The Nuance Automatic Password Reset module is part of Nuance’s Employee Productivity Suite (EPS). • A new low power fingerprint sensor has been introduced by AuthenTec. The AES1711 is the latest in a series of fingerprint sensors targeted specifically for the mobile wireless market and offers an expanded input/output voltage range (1.8V to 3.3V), consuming 88 percent less power in finger detect mode than earlier models. Already designed into new mobile phones that will ship later this year, the AES1711 is ideally suited for external mounting on any mobile phone as well as other mobile devices, including GPS navigation devices and PDAs. Meanwhile, in other news, AuthenTec has announced that its fingerprint sensor has been integrated into the first fingerprint-enabled “global phones” offered by Fujitsu. • Hirsch Electronics has confirmed that its Verification Station’s biometric technology has passed the Transportation Security Administration’s (TSA) testing and was placed on its “Biometrics for Access Control” Qualified Products List (QPL). Hirsch developed the Verification Station, model family RUU, in conjunction with Cogent Systems. Hirsch’s RUU integrates Cogent’s ID-Gate biometric subsystem, one of only two products that met TSA’s testing requirements for airport physical access control. The biometrics in the Verification Station passed tests including requirements for a failure-to-enrol rate of less than 3 percent and a 99.86 percent operational availability rate. • The Public Review Draft of the International Symbology Specification – Datastrip 2D has been developed by AIM Global’s Technical Symbology Committee. Datastrip 2D is a variable-size, variable-density two-dimensional symbology. The bar code can encode text, binary and biometric data.
4
Biometric Technology Today
US government to harmonise standards
Steria pulls out of UK ID card scheme
T
S
he US government has issued a draft document that lists recommended standards to enable government agencies to easily share biometric data. The idea behind the initiative is sound. For example, the harmonization of standards use would ensure that biometric data on known or suspected terrorists collected by the Department of Defense in war zones are also useable by Department of Homeland Security’s screening operations at US border crossings. The initiative is being run by the White House’s National Science and Technology Council (NSTC) Subcommittee on Biometrics and Identity Management. It is requesting public comments on the draft by 10 March. NSTC has established a framework to reach interagency consensus on biometric standards for the federal government. It ensured that federal agencies such as the Departments of State, Justice, Defense and Homeland Security collect and exchange different types of biometric data in specific standardised formats. The standards registry is the result of interagency analysis and deliberation on numerous, often contradictory, standards currently available, and specifies which standards US government agencies should use. Membership on the subcommittee charged with drafting the standards registry included representatives from 15 different US government departments and agencies, and five different organizations in the Executive Office of the President. The NSTC Committee on Technology (COT) first established the subcommittee in 2002 to “advise and assist the COT, NSTC and other coordination bodies of the Executive Office of the President on policies, procedures and plans for federally sponsored biometric and identity management activities”. Specific sections of the registry recommend standards for data collection, storage and exchange; transmission profiles; requirements for identifying government employees and contractors; “plug and play” equipment standards; conformance and performance testing methodology standards and references. The standards registry is available at www.biometrics.gov/standards.
teria has taken the decision to withdraw from the UK’s biometricbased national ID card scheme. The company announced in a statement that: “Following a business review of the National Identity Scheme (NIS) framework procurement programme, Steria has decided to explore opportunities to work as a sub-contractor on the scheme, rather than as a prime contractor and has therefore withdrawn from this procurement as a prime contractor.” The news follows the withdrawal in January of Accenture and BAE Systems and now leaves just five potential suppliers – of whom “fourto-five” are expected to be successful in winning a framework contract. A spokesman for the Identity and Passport Service told Btt: “We are relaxed about this. Competitive dialogue for the National Identity Scheme framework procurement is continuing apace, and to schedule as set out in on the timeline set out in the framework prospectus in August. We have had a very healthy level of interest from high-calibre suppliers, and this is precisely why we have run the competitive dialogue over the last few months, to make sure we have the right suppliers in the right roles. IPS continues: “We are now set to issue invitations to tender next month and expect to award the framework contract in May to four or five prime suppliers. Those suppliers can choose to supplement their capabilities with subcontractors, and there could also be other contracts procured outside the framework which other firms would also be able to bid for.” The potential prime suppliers remaining from the original eight are: CSC; EDS; Fujitsu; IBM; and Thales. IPS will issue formal invite to tender next month and then the framework contract to four or five prime suppliers in May. Once the framework is in place IPS says it will immediately proceed with the first two procurements, which are: • The replacement of core Application and Enrolment processes for passports and the provision of desktop infrastructure for IPS; and • The replacement and upgrading of the existing systems for fingerprint matching and storage in connection with immigration and visa requirements and transition to the replacement service.
March 2008