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02.Press Release - Novell Named 'Best Identity Manager' in InfoWorld's 2006 Technology of the Year Awards - Jan 3, 2006
03. NY rejects caregiver proposal - BY LAUREN TERRAZZANO - NY Newsday - January 4, 2006
04. European visitors drawing US scrutiny - Fingerprint file is considered - By Charlie Savage- Boston Globe - January 3, 2006
05. Speech Technology Magazine - January/February, 2006
06. Bill recognising DNA as evidence to be introduced in Parliament - Manorama Online [India] - Dec 4, 2006
07. Is investor data secure enough? - Rediff.com [India] - Jan 4, 2005
08. Firm's failure allowed criminal into home, judge says - BY LESLIE BALDACCI - Chicago Sun Times - Jan 4, 2006
09. Criminal checks for coaches? Phillipsburg council debates scrutinizing volunteers. - By SARAH CASSI - The Express-Times [New Jersey] - January 04, 2006
10. 'State can be charged after boy's murder' by Gill Gifford and Sapa - Independent On Line {South Africa} January 04 2006
11. Real-life CSIs battle TV myths - Technology has helped forensic officers, but nothing's as easy as it is on television - By IAN ROBERTSON - Toronto Sun - Jan 4, 2006
12. Changeable Fingerprint - If someone steals your fingerprint, "cancelable biometrics" software from IBM can issue a new one. - By David Talbot - Technology Review - Dec 2005/Jan 2006
13. Security in the blink of an eye - Iris recognition is poised for growth, winning fans for its ease and accuracy - BY KEVIN COUGHLIN - Star-Ledger (New Jersey) - Jan 4, 2006
14. Chiropractor opening 24-hour gym in city - By Eric Fleischauer - Decatur Daily [Alabama] - Jan 4, 2005
15. Just touch and go - By Teri Finneman, The Forum [North Dakota]- January 04, 2006
16. Mexico hires biometrics companies to beef up prison security - Associated Press - Forth Worth Star Telegram (Texas) - Jan 4, 2006
17. Plan to change prints system angers experts by LUCY ADAMS - The Herald (UK) - Jan 04, 2006
18. FRAMING THE FUTURE - Crime fight goes high-tech to protect kids, assets - By ERIKO ARITA - The Japan Times - Jan 4, 2006
19. Press Release - ManTech Awarded $10.5 Million Contract from the Transportation Security Administration to Support Alien Flight School Program - Dec 12, 2005
20. Online procedures of DNRD [Dubai Naturalisation and Residency Department] are now fully functional - - Al Bawaba (Jordan) - Jan 3, 2006
21. US Government Pushes Banks to Tighten Up Online Security - By Paul Korzeniowski - Tech News World - Jan 4, 2006
22. Press Release -
23. Press Release - Smart Cards still in Security Surveillance fray - Jan 4, 2006
24. Deploying Identity-Related Compliance: Best Practices - by Glenn Choquette Director of Product Management
Fischer International - Sarbanges Oxley Compliance Journal - Jan 4, 2006
25. The RFID implant or subcutaneous microchip by Gaétan - SPCM Org - Jan 4, 2006
26. Press Release - Passfaces Corporation Releases Technical White Paper Entitled The Science Behind Passfaces(TM) Authored by Paul Barrett Recognized Authority on Authentication and Cognometrics - Jan 4, 2006
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01. After The Fall: Making Sense Out Of Sensenbrenner -by Gary Endelman - Immigration Daily - Jan 4, 2006
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Now we know how Tom Paine felt at Valley Forge. It has been a cold December for those who think immigration is good for America. On December 16th, the House of Representatives approved the Border Protection, Antiterrorism and Illegal Immigration Control Act of 2005(H.R.4437), perhaps the most draconian bill of recent memory, and, a mere three days later, the House approved an agreement with the Senate on a comprehensive budget reconciliation package stripped bare of any pro-immigration provisions. While there is some satisfaction in the fact that the House did not get the higher L fees that it sought, this is cold comfort. Truth be told, it was a tough week, the worst in a long time, and the shock among pro-immigration circles, both on Capitol Hill and beyond, is palpable.
For the first time in a long time, the Republican House defied the US Chamber of Commerce, the National Association of Manufacturers and other corporate lobbying groups who sought to block adoption of a mandatory electronic employment eligibility verification system that would link Social Security Administration and Homeland Security databases. Such business opposition is not hard to figure out. Electronic verification would be on top of, not as a substitute for, the current I-9 compliance regime. Not only would new hires be subject to electronic verification, but all private sector employers would be compelled to reverify existing employees within six years; federal, state and local governments, not to mention non-governmental employers at critical infrastructure facilities, such as airports and nuclear power plants, would only have three years. All private sector employers must electronically check their entire workforce by 2012.
The political clout of their natural allies could not carry the day against the popular appeal of the proposal by House Judiciary Committee Chair James Sensenbrenner ( R-WI) who benefited from the absence of House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, busy with his own legal troubles back in Texas. With DeLay not there to whip the GOP House Caucus into line, the Republican House Leadership removed Senate language that would have revolutionized employment-based immigration from the budget conference report as the price of pacifying anti-immigrant House members who had sent a letter to Speaker Hastert and Acting Majority Leader Roy Blunt(R-Mo) threatening to vote against the budget if the good stuff stayed in. Whether they would have acted on their threat will never be known, but the possibility of their doing so was enough to make House budget conferees beat a hasty retreat. While there was a deal to be made, one in which pro-immigration provisions were sold as a potent enhancement to House Republican leaders desperate for new sources of revenue, the need to pass a federal budget, particularly with no Democratic votes, trumped everything else. Hastert and Blunt simply did not have the margin within their own Caucus to call Tancredo's bluff. Originally in the draft Conference Report, Section 8001 was taken out before a final vote. Other pro-immigration lobbying efforts by the immigration bar and its traditional comrades in arms were too little, too late.. But, this is sadly no longer news.
Pro-immigration lobbyists were most effective in the good old days when immigration was an inside the Beltway game. You met with a few friendly legislators who depended on your technical expertise and usually something could be quietly and quickly worked out. Three things have made this impossible. First, the Immigration Reform and Control Act made all US employers junior immigration agents by mandating completion of the I-9 employment verification form as a condition of hire. No longer would it be acceptable for American companies to hire those illegal aliens who had made their way through the maze. Now, immigration became a daily fact of business life. As was predicted, IRCA did not solve the problem of illegal migration, so much as defer the day of reckoning for a future time. The marker for IRCA has now come due. Second, the Immigration Act of 1990 tripled the number of employment visas, but fatefully, at the last minute, chose not to reform the labor certification system that, even then, had broken down as the inevitable contradiction of mass migration and micromanagement became too heavy to bear. . Moreover, IRCA introduced the concept of amnesty as a way to cope with rising illegal migration without doing anything to restore the structural imbalance between family and employment-based options that had made it necessary to come in under the shadows in the first place. That was what IMMACT 90 was supposed to do- serve as the second act to IRCA’s overture. Yet, the number of immigrant visas for the other worker category- a paltry 10,000 (originally only 5,000)- was, and always has been, wholly inadequate to the task and the demand, thus leaving both desperate aliens and equally anxious employers little incentive but to act in an extra-legal fashion. What the law did not make provision for , the economy did. Third, 9/11 changed the world and everything in it would never be the same. Immigration was now synonymous with terrorism and those who hated both immigration and the immigrants now had a powerful new club to swing. They set about wielding it with gusto. Lou Dobbs meet Mohammed Atta.
As bad as HR 4437 is, the real loss is the removal of the pro-immigration provisions that had been enshrined in section 8001 of the Senate budget package. It is impossible to overstate the stimulus that Senate Budget Bill section 8001 would have injected into an employment immigration system that is on life support. Even its authors do not realize what has been lost. Restoration of up to 90,000 unused immigrant visa numbers that had been gathering dust is only the least of it. Much more was at stake. The additional unused H-1B numbers that Section 8001 would have made available would have been a shot in the arm for desperate US employers with openings where these foreign nationals are sorely needed. Section 8001 would have tripled the number of employment-based immigrant visas simply by not counting family members against the 140,000 cap. Just by backing out dependents , the EB quotas would have been utterly transformed. Good bye backlogs! But wait, I rejoice too soon. Not counting family members would erase much of the current EB backlog, but does nothing to guard against its re-emergence, phoenix-like from the ashes. The day for immigration reform on the cheap is long since gone never to return. Section 8001 did not enlarge the EB quota nor give employment based migration priority over family migration, something that must happen if the same, or even longer, backlogs, are not to come back with a vengeance . There was one other fly in the ointment, namely that the architects of Section 8001 did not realize the need to amend the Child Status Protection Act so that, while Mom and Dad waited for their day of green card deliverance to arrive, their kids would have aged out. The CSPA only freezes a dependent's age if there is a current priority date. How many parents are going to wait patiently for final adjustment approval if their kids have to go home?
Removal of Section 8001 from the Budget Reconciliation Conference Report can be a temporary setback if we play our cards right. Congressman Sensenbrenner has long and loudly proclaimed that he is not against all immigration, just the illegal variety. Fine. Let’s take him at his word. He is, after all, the architect of the new E-3 visa that enables 10,500 Australians to get around the H-1B cap. Congressman Sensenbrenner has his enforcement-only bill now so he should be prepared to support us when we seek to attach Section 8001 to broadly bipartisan legislation in the upcoming session of Congress. If Congressman Sensenbrenner means what he says, and he usually does, this might be a golden opportunity to bring Section 8001 back to life.
Having said that, in the long term, Section 8001 meant a lot more than HR 4437 does not mean that the number of poison pills in Sensenbrenner's bill do not make it exceedingly painful to swallow. Purely from a $ standpoint, the bill does not work, particularly at a time when the Administration wants to rein in federal spending, eliminate the estate tax, scrap the alternative minimum tax, rebuild the Gulf Coast, keep defense spending at record levels, pay for a new prescription drug benefit under Medicare and make the President's tax cuts permanent. Did I forget Iraq?. The Congressional Budget Office estimates that initial implementation will cost $1.9 billion with more in later years as additional restrictions come on stream. Just do the math. Providing DHS with secure access to a reliable database of Social Security numbers will not come cheap. When you factor in the need for the Social Security Agency to answer phone inquiries, handle personal visits and produce replacement SSN cards for people whose employers get a nonverified electronic response, you begin to get some idea of why the Social Security folks are less than wild about this new toy. Take off the price tag, and HR 4437 still does not look too good. Here are some holiday treats that you probably will not stuff into your stocking over the fireplace:
- All visitors processed in the US VISIT system will now offer up ten fingerprints to enhance the reliability of biometric data collection. Think that is going to shorten the lines at your friendly airport?
- Illegal presence in the USA goes from a civil offense to a crime punishable by a year in the pokey. This covers anyone who overstays or violates the terms of their visa. Advising such aliens on their legal options, or helping them to become legal, could easily be prosecuted as harboring. How's that for chilling the attorney-client relationship? It is hard to imagine that the feds will arrest millions of people, but it is not beyond imagining to speculate that they might move against high profile lawyers, corporate employers, and non-profit advocates, if only to make an example out of them, and scare the hell out of everyone else. Nothing succeeds like intimidation. The criminalizing of immigration misconduct, often innocent and frequently the direct product or inevitable result of government inefficiency, recalcitrance or sheer refusal to abide by law or logic, is a blatant attempt to convert understandable public concern into overt xenophobia . It is grandstanding masquerading for public policy and must be denounced as such.
- The maximum period for voluntary departure shrinks from 120 to 60 days. You might not get even that if you cannot pay to post a bond nor prove up hardship to excuse you from such obligation.
- There is a new ten year statute of limitations for immigration-related crimes.
- State and local law enforcement can now investigate, arrest and detain, or even transfer to federal custody, any alien in violation of immigration laws. The very population that is most vulnerable to crime, that is most in need of protection, and has the most reason to distrust the police, now has one more reason to keep quiet. Will this make our cities safer?
- Expedited removal moves inland to lasso any alien arrested within 100 miles of the border up to 14 days after entering the USA and any nonimmigrant visa holder must give up the right to challenge a refusal to admit, regardless of how arbitrary or capricious, save for asylee or refugee claims. Due process is simply too much trouble.
- The time you must wait after a naturalization interview to take your case to federal court has just been extended from 120 to 180 days. Even then, if you do manage to get to the courthouse, all the judge can do is send your case back down to the CIS with instructions to behave; no longer can the court order an outright grant.
- The border with Mexico is to be militarized. HR 4437 authorizes two layers of fencing and the installation of additional barriers with priority given to certain high entry sections. One wonders what will happen to our northern border with Canada and how effective any attempt to seal off thousands of miles will be. Beyond that, the moral position of the USA in the rest of an already suspicious world will be seriously compromised. What are we to tell other countries when they seek to build their walls? What will be the consequences be for our foreign relations with our neighbors, the same neighbors that we are pressing for trade concessions and security cooperation? At a time when the reaction against globalism is in full swing throughout the Western Hemisphere, is this really the time to retreat behind a Fortress America?
Jack Kemp, former Secretary of Housing and Urban Development and the Republican Vice-Presidential Candidate in 1996, has done just that:
H.R. 4437 is so overreaching that it would effectively transform any relative, employer, co-worker, co- congregant or friend of an undocumented immigrant into an “alien smuggler” and a criminal. The legislation’s far-reaching “smuggling” provisions go far beyond any common-sense definition of a “smuggler” and include average Americans going about their business. It also inappropriately conscripts the American business community into the U.S. government’s immigration police force by requiring burdensome investigative and reporting activities where prospective employees are concerned: http://www.humaneventsonline.com/article.php?print=yes&id=11112
- Congressman JD Hayworth, Republican from Arizona, proposed the elimination of the Family Fourth Preference with all the numbers shifted over to the employment side of the ledger. Predictably, our crowd went nuts. Why? With due appreciation for cultural lifestyle and ethnic diversity, most Americans love their adult siblings, but we do not live with them. The brothers and sisters of US citizens are coming here to work and they should enter on work visas with proper labor market protection. In fact, they would get here much faster this way, thus demonstrating yet again, if this still needed proving, that rhetoric is not reality nor good intentions a satisfactory substitute for sound public policy. The same argument can and must be advanced to support Section 1102 of HR 4437 that, at long last, eliminates the Diversity Lottery, a flawed experiment in social engineering that has no apparent rationale to sustain it.
- Section 207 of HR 4437 provides that a false claim to US nationality, not just to US citizenship, is a bar to admission. This is yet another example of Congress' dislike for the Ninth Circuit, here a reaction against U.S. v. Karanoui , 379 F. 3d 1139, 1140 ( 9th. Cir. 2004) in which the Court held that a noncitizen defendant who had checked off the box on the I-9 form claiming to be a "citizen or national of the United States" had not violated 18 U.S.C. Section 911 ( "whoever falsely and willfully represents himself to be a citizen of the United States shall be fined under this title or imprisoned more than three years, or both") on the theory that a claim to US nationality was not a claim to US citizenship. While this is certainly true, it is virtually inconceivable that someone who answers this question in such a manner knows the difference. The concept of owing permanent allegiance to the United States without being a citizen, precisely the definition of "US National", belongs to America's distant imperial past when Cuba, the Philippines, and Puerto Rico fell to Uncle Sam as the spoils of a short but sweetly victorious war with Spain. With such singular exceptions as Micronesia and American Samoa, it is hard to find a US national today, nor did the Ninth Circuit find one. This is a wonderful example of why reliance on a legal technicality defies common sense, so much so that the very integrity of those who hold fast to it cannot help but suffer in the public's perception.
- Section 219 of HR 4437 directs USCIS to establish a pilot program for backlog reduction within six months. What's not to like?
- Section 604 of HR 4437 makes it a deportable offense to unlawfully procure citizenship, commit domestic violence, engage in stalking, neglect a child and child abandonment. Unless I have been educated beyond my intelligence, which is certainly possible, it is hard to figure out what is so terrible here.
- Section 606 of HR 4437 makes the commission of three drunk driving offenses grounds for a one way ticket out of town. For all those who have lost close friends or family to this terrible crime, I fail to understand why Sensenbrenner is wrong. Canada bars anyone with even one DUI and few think of that country as a bastion of reaction. The same can be said for Section 613 which adds sexual abuse of a minor as an aggravated felony. Is defense of antisocial behavior our new badge of intellectual sophistication or civic virtue?
- Section 1201 would require DHS to notify a foreign government when their citizens naturalize in the United States. Under Section 349 of the Immigration and Nationality Act, and even under HR 4437, continued use of a foreign passport after naturalization is not a basis for loss of US citizenship. It should be. Such conduct is manifestly inconsistent with the oath of citizenship in which one renounces all other allegiances. Either change the oath or change the law. Doing neither tolerates the kind of hypocrisy that breeds cynicism and undermines respect for law.
So, this leaves us with a choice. We can become reconciled to more and deeper defeats, finding solace in resignation and healing our wounds in the balm of self-righteousness. We can denounce the 'Culture of No" at conferences and dinner parties, secure in the false belief that intellectual superiority is a fair exchange for political impotence. As each new law comes along, we can talk to our natural allies and confer with those who share our values. We can have another emergency campaign and put forward reasons to oppose the latest blow that are both legally justified and morally sound. And we can lose again.
There is another way, a better way. We can do something new, we can enter the arena, we can be more concerned with practical results than ideological purity. We can roll up our sleeves and make painful, dirty, slow progress by compromising with those whom we neither agree with nor respect on non-immigration matters. We can stop treating all opponents as if they were the same, as if their concerns, which are not ours, lack any legitimacy or are not honestly felt or strongly embraced. There are many in the Tancredo camp that we will never reach. They do not want any immigration, legal or illegal. There is no way to reach them nor should we try. They belong in the muck of privilege and prejudice into which we should never descend and from which we can never emerge. Yet, there are others who opposed Section 8001 and voted for HR 4437 who can be reached. Our task is to find out how, to speak to their hearts and to learn a common language whose most honest expression can unite us all . That is the way forward.
There is a price, however, to be paid for coming to terms with reality. Those who favor more immigration must cease and desist from their reflexive opposition to any enforcement measure. There is nothing wrong with enforcement if it is tied to a wider social purpose, if it seeks to facilitate, rather than prevent, immigration that is manifestly in the national interest. That is the true objection to HR 4437, not that it hurts, because enforcement often hurts and frequently should, if it has any teeth. The real problem with Sensenbrenner is that his vision consists of enforcement not to aid policy, but as a substitute for it, not to promote immigration, but to discourage it. More than the aliens themselves, America is the real loser. To change their approach on enforcement, pro-immigration supporters must change their view of immigration itself. If one believes, as most supporters of immigration have always believed, that immigration is international social work whose fundamental justification lies in helping the individual alien, then opposition to enforcement necessarily follows for the burden of such enforcement falls most harshly upon the object of their compassion. It must be so. Only when immigration advocates are primarily concerned with the deployment of immigration as a strategic tool to promote core national objectives will they be intellectually and emotionally capable of deciding what enforcement to embrace and what to resist. This must happen if an enlightened immigration policy can ever hope to regain control of the national debate and silence Lou Dobbs once and for all. Unless we adopt a more nuanced approach towards enforcement and recognize that new benefits must come with strings attached, ours will remain a minority position in the country at large. Does this make sense? Does it benefit our clients? Does it get us what we want?
The question is not whether enforcement will be front and center in the immigration conversation but, rather, how it will be used and towards what ends. If we who favor immigration do not embrace enforcement and seek to fashion it in our image, then we should not be surprised when our foes shape it in their own. That is precisely what has been happening, and that is one big reason why HR 4437 hurts as much as it does. There are some provisions that deserve our constant condemnation and unremitting hostility; yet, there are others that we should have supported or, at a minimum, sought to modify or moderate. Once you give the American public the distinct impression that only the other side wants to make them safe, even if they are wrong, even if they are only seeking to elicit favorable headlines, you are starting off from a posture of political weakness and playing catch-up is rarely enough to ward off disaster.
For a long time, our side just didn’t get it. While they could read the calendar, their hearts and minds were still stuck on September 10, 2001, a time when Congress was poised to revive Section 245(i) forgiveness and abolish the I-9 employer sanctions regime. Finally, about one year ago, they got religion. President Bush put the issue of guest workers center stage and Senator McCain signed on to S.1003, The Secure and Orderly Immigration Act of 2005. Title IV of S. 1003 deals entirely with enforcement, most notably Section 402 that, precisely as HR 4437 does, mandates establishment of an Employment Eligibility Confirmation System to allow employers to verify an employee’s identity and employment authorization. Indeed, it would not be too much of an exaggeration to say that the inclusion of enforcement was the price that Sen. Kennedy and his allies paid for having Sen. McCain come on board. There was a hearing on S. 1003 before the Senate Judiciary Committee on July 26, 2005 (I testified at one of the panels for that hearing), but no action after that. Since then, leading conservative pro-immigration advocates, like Tamar Jacoby, have called for a melding of McCain- Kennedy’s guest worker provisions with the enforcement mechanism of S. 1438, the so-called “Cornyn-Kyl” Bill , more formally known as the Comprehensive Enforcement and Immigration Reform Act of 2005 whose chief architects are Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) and Sen. Jon Kyl (R-AZ).
Had McCain-Kennedy been introduced sooner, had the Senate Republican stalemate over immigration been broken, perhaps Rep. Sensenbrenner would not have moved ahead with his own bill, being forced instead to respond to what the Senate had done. There being no Senate action, Rep. Sensenbrenner saw an opening to press his own enforcement agenda and he took it, brilliantly and decisively. His victory in the House may come back to haunt the Republican Party, much as the GOP enactment of national origins quotas in 1924 turned generations of immigrants towards the Democratic banner and as Proposition 187 ultimately derailed the presidential aspirations of California Governor Pete Wilson. Republican stalwart Jack Kemp plays the role of Cassandra:
The so-called Border Protection, Antiterrorism and Illegal Immigration Control Act of 2005 (H.R. 4437)…is so overreaching that, in my opinion, it could become the Proposition 187 of the 21st century…the effect was to drastically alienate Hispanic voters in California from the Republican Party… It’s true our borders are broken and the problem is huge, but Republicans have the opportunity today to take the lead on reforms and fix our immigration system. Sending this legislation to the President to be signed is sure to be perceived as anti-immigrant and, indeed, anti-growth: http://www.humaneventsonline.com/article.php?print=yes&id=1112.
How many pro-immigration organizations have invited people like Jack Kemp to serve on their boards? How many Executive Directors of pro-immigration groups have served on the campaign committees of Republicans like Kemp, Rep. Jeff Flake (R-AZ) or Rep. Chris Cannon (R-Utah)? Why are there not more Tamar Jacobys out there? I ask these questions as a life-long Democrat whose political baptism came in volunteering for Bobby Kennedy when he ran for the United States Senate in 1964, went “Clean for Gene” in 1968, stayed up till 2Am to hear McGovern’s acceptance speech, and who still regards Bush v. Gore as illegitimate. If we want immigration policy to be bipartisan, as it must be if it is to create a sustainable national consensus grounded on compassion and enlightened self-interest, then immigration advocates must become bipartisan, not a left-leaning interest group most concerned with advancing the election prospects of the Democratic Party. There is nothing wrong with caring about the Democratic Party first and immigration second if one is honest about their intentions and their purpose. Putting either immigration or the Democratic Party first are both equally moral positions. What is immoral is to pretend to be one when secretly being the other. Far too many immigration interest groups will suddenly fall mute if speaking out means that Republicans get the credit. We need honest priorities openly expressed if the national conversation on immigration is to achieve the kind of results we claim we want and which I believe we do want.
We live in a time when civility is a sign of weakness and sincerity is subject to proof. Now, now more than ever, the vital center must hold. It is in the wake of Sensenbrenner's bill that champions of immigration must seek to create a third way that has within its big tent ample room for those Sensenbrenner supporters who realize that America needs an outward looking immigration policy integrated with the global economy and responsive to the manifold challenges of the digital age. For those who prefer the security of ancient hatreds, this will not be a time of opportunity but remain one of bitterness and suspicion. Yet, it can be more than that if we but have the will to chart a new course towards those whose dreams have not been ours. We owe it to our clients and our country to try. Rather than abandoning our beliefs, we must marry our deepest convictions to an abiding concern for America’s future. When the German Army invaded Russia in June 1941, Prime Minister Winston Churchill immediately went to the well of the House of Commons to urge all out support for Marshall Josef Stalin. Asked how a lifelong foe of Bolshevism could take such a stand and reach out to those who had always been his most bitter foes, Churchill responded with words that we, who seek to make sense out of Sensenbrenner's bill, would do well to take to heart: " If the Nazis invaded hell, I would say a good word for the Devil in the House of Commons!" Amen, Winston. We are all right behind you.
About The AuthorGary Endelman practices immigration law at BP America Inc. The opinions expressed in this column are purely personal and do not represent the views or beliefs of BP America Inc. in any way.
====================02. Press Release - Novell Named 'Best Identity Manager' in InfoWorld's 2006 Technology of the Year Awards - Jan 3, 2006
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ET Novell Identity Manager wins for its
powerful tools and intuitive interfaces that deliver faster time to
value for customers
"Usability will be the next big battleground," wrote the InfoWorld test center analysts. "So far, Novell has taken the lead in this area, offering sophisticated management tools atop its mature directory server foundation. The recently released Identity Manager 3 builds on an already solid product offering with automated provisioning capabilities and a visual policy designer based on the Eclipse framework."
In the identity management market for more than five years and with more than 3,600 customers, Novell shipped the next generation of its flagship identity management solution, Identity Manager 3, in Dec. 2005. Through advanced visual modeling, workflow and self-service capabilities, Novell Identity Manager 3 offers companies powerful new tools to meet tough security and compliance requirements.
"Winning this award with Identity Manager 2 proves we understand the real requirements of our customers," said Kent Erickson, vice president of identity and resource management at Novell. "Now with Identity Manager 3, we have raised the bar and taken the lead in solving real customer problems. We are very proud of our leadership in this fast growing market."
The Technology of the Year Awards were highlighted in the Jan. 2, 2006, issue of InfoWorld. For more information about Novell Identity and Access Management, go to http://www.novell.com/identity.
About Novell
Novell, Inc. (Nasdaq: NOVL - News) delivers Software for the Open Enterprise(TM). With more than 50,000 customers in 43 countries, Novell helps customers manage, simplify, secure and integrate their technology environments by leveraging best-of-breed, open standards-based software. With over 20 years of experience, more than 5,000 employees, 5,000 partners and support centers around the world, Novell helps customers gain control over their IT operating environment while reducing cost. More information about Novell can be found at http://www.novell.com.
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03. NY rejects caregiver proposal - BY LAUREN TERRAZZANO - NY Newsday - January 4, 2006
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The state agency responsible for day care regulation has rejected Nassau County's request for criminal background checks on "informal" providers -- mostly friends or relatives who collect public money to watch children -- despite program fraud statewide and pleas for oversight from New York City and other counties.
In a December letter to Nassau County obtained by Newsday, the state's Office of Children and Family Services declined the county's request to begin fingerprinting those who provide such child care.
Those workers -- chosen by parents who receive the subsidy from the county -- collect up to $5 million a year in Nassau alone from a federal child care block grant that helps welfare recipients secure child care while they work. About 600 people are informal providers in Nassau. Overall on Long Island, such workers comprise 12 percent of the $80-million subsidized day care budget.
State officials said social service law does not allow them to fingerprint informal providers, though workers at licensed day care centers must undergo similar background checks.
The agency also denied the county's request to search county arrest records, citing similar restrictions.
The rejection comes as New York continues to struggle with a day care system that still has many regulatory holes, critics say, despite legislation in 2000 to provide better oversight of licensed centers and providers.
"There are no provisions [in social service law] that would allow Nassau County ... to conduct criminal background checks," wrote Suzanne Sennett, the director of early childhood services at the agency.
Brian Marchetti, a state spokesman, said Gov. George Pataki tried unsuccessfully last year to amend the law to include informal providers in the criminal background process. The legislature didn't act on the bill before the session ended. He said similar legislation will be reintroduced this year.
In several counties across the state, investigators have found that people providing informal care under the program have not met eligibility requirements -- or were paid for services they did not provide.
Last summer, Nassau sought background checks after a district attorney sweep netted seven arrests of people illegally accepting day care money. Two of the designated child-care providers were in prison while they were allegedly caring for children, the investigation found.
"Obviously a fingerprint check would have alerted us to this problem," said Peter Clement, Nassau's acting social service commissioner.
Under New York's law, day care providers who care for no more than two children are largely exempt from state oversight. Even when providers are kicked out of the state system after running larger day care operations, they can legally care for two children without scrutiny.
New York City lawmakers called for similar oversight last summer after the death of 2-year old Jaylen Robinson, whose baby-sitter put duct tape over his mouth, because, she said, the toddler would not stop crying.
The day care provider had not been required to submit to a criminal background check even though she had a prior criminal history of assault.
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04 European visitors drawing US scrutiny - Fingerprint file is considered - By Charlie Savage- Boston Globe - January 3, 2006
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WASHINGTON – Homeland Security officials are considering requiring European travelers to keep their fingerprints on file with the United States if they want to visit the country without a visa.
The proposal is one of a series of measures being developed by the Homeland Security policy office in response to a growing fear that terrorism may originate in Western Europe rather than the Middle East. Requiring Europeans to register their fingerprints would minimize the chances of passport fraud, which security specialists believe is a growing danger.
“We’re moving to an area where international travelers’ fingerprints are going to be part of their identifier,” said Stewart Baker, assistant secretary for policy in the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
Baker, whose office develops long-term homeland security policies, said a decision is not imminent on the proposal to require Europeans to register their fingerprints. But he is considering it as a way to protect against terrorists with European backgrounds.
Currently, most of Europe is exempt from the rule that foreign visitors obtain a visa, which requires undergoing a background check, fingerprinting, and a face-to-face interview. Originally designed to block illegal immigration, the U.S. visa system makes an exception for visitors from 27 affluent countries, mostly in Western Europe.
As security concerns have shifted to terrorism, however, the risk from Europe has grown because of its large and poorly integrated Muslim population. This past year, Islamist extremists born in England bombed London’s subway system, a Belgian woman who converted to Islam committed a suicide bombing in Iraq, and angry Muslim youths rioted across France for weeks.
“Our visa waiver program was built on the assumption that the biggest worry we have about people who come here on tourist visa is that they may stay and take jobs, so the assumption was, for wealthy countries, we could afford to do without the visa process,” Baker said. “The problem is, that’s not the worst thing people can do now, and Al Qaeda has made no secret of its hope that it can recruit people who are Western.”
Indeed, some critics argued that the United States should require all Europeans to obtain visas to screen out potential terrorists. Visa officials can reject applicants who arouse suspicions during an interview, even if their papers are in order.
“Today, there are about 15 million Muslims that now inhabit European countries,” said Representative Tom Tancredo, Republican of Colorado, at a 2004 House hearing on the program. “How exactly are we safer by not having a visa program in place for countries that have huge populations of people that we are concerned about?”
But most security specialists believe the United States cannot force all Europeans to get visas. Two-thirds of U.S. overseas visitors come from visa waiver countries – more than 10 million travelers a year. It would cost far too much to interview each traveler, specialists say, and it would discourage tourism, hurting the U.S. economy and strain diplomatic relations.
“An enormous amount of resources go into visa processing, and we shouldn’t be diverting those from [higher-risk countries] where we really need them,” said Jim Carafano, a homeland security specialist at the conservative Heritage Foundation.
Instead, Homeland Security officials are seeking ways to better verify the identity of visitors without taking the dramatic step of making Europeans come to a U.S. consulate for an interview.
The United States has already started requiring Europeans to provide an electronic fingerprint when they enter and leave from American airports. Last week, Homeland Security announced it had completed installing the systems at 154 land-border ports of entry as well.
The fingerprint system, specialists say, will help keep better track of visitors. But it won’t help catch a terrorist from Europe who is traveling on a forged or stolen passport, using a fake name that doesn’t show up on any watchlist.
Baker said requiring Europeans to register their fingerprints ahead of travel would reduce identity fraud because officials could match the fingerprint taken at the border against the database. Officials are still working out how to collect the European fingerprints, but two possible collection points would be local police stations or well-regulated private businesses, Baker said. Any new fingerprint policy would have to be negotiated with European countries, where privacy advocates have already raised concerns about U.S. data collection. But Baker said he is optimistic.
“The interest in not giving fingerprints in advance, since we’re going to get them eventually [at the border], strikes me as a lot smaller than if the U.S. would never get them,” he said.
Homeland Security officials said European countries must also do more to keep track of identifying numbers associated with stolen passports – and to quickly let the United States know about them – if they want to have their citizens keep traveling to the United States without a visa.
“A lot of countries have delegated passport issuing authority to local offices, so there are a lot of blank passports in a lot of countries which can be stolen,” Baker said. “If you steal a blank one and have the technology to print it up, it’s very hard to know that it’s a forgery. That makes it quite difficult to catch unless you have a good system for reporting the loss of blank passports.”
Baker declined to comment about any specific country. But nearly 10,000 blank passports were stolen in France in February 2004, and the United States wasn’t warned to watch out for the passport numbers for two months, according to news reports at the time. Another administration official said the United States has been putting intense pressure on Germany, where passports are issued by local offices that take too long to log stolen passport numbers in central databases, the official said.
Under a new law, Homeland Security must review each European country’s passport security every two years, and it can revoke a nation’s visa waiver privileges.
The United States has not yet taken the step of requiring visas, but has attempted to crack down in other ways.
For example, the United States recently began requiring Europeans’ passports to have digital photographs. France and Italy missed the deadline to complete the upgrade, and the United States is now refusing to admit their citizens without a visa if they have nondigital passports issued after October 2005. US figures show that more than 10,000 French and Italian travelers applied for visas in the past two months.
Robert Leiken, a national security specialist at the Nixon Center, a nonpartisan think tank, said another way to reduce passport fraud would be to require Europeans to enter their passport numbers at the time they book tickets, so that the United States has more time to screen them. Baker said, “We’re moving in that direction.”
Baker’s predecessor as head of policy for Homeland Security, Stewart Verdery, who left the government nine months ago, said officials have long hoped to get advance notice of passport numbers. But he cautioned that an overly aggressive push for more personal data could provoke a backlash.
Verdery negotiated a treaty with the EU Commission giving the United States advance access to the names and birth dates of Europeans booking airline tickets, but privacy advocates in the European Parliament are trying to overturn the agreement in court.
“The EU has a different mindset about turning over personal information,” Verdery said. “It will serve the US well to work as best as we can with the European countries to minimize surprises, and to come up th things as narrowly tailored as possible, to comply with the European point of view.”
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05. Speech Technology Magazine - January/February, 2006
http://www.speechtechmag.com/
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Why Make It So Hard? - By John Kelly [Making Voice Response Systems Easier]
Metalanguages and AJAX - By James A. Larson [Processing on the Client-Side]
Revisiting the ROI of Speech - By Dan Miller
Show Some Emotion - By Judith Markowitz [Commercial-grade text-to-speech synthesis capable of conveying emotions]
Point/Counter Point on Personas - By Deborah Dahl [The concept of "persona" in the voice-user interface (VUI)]
2006: The Continued Emergence of Natural Language Speech Applications - By Bruce Pollock
Clarkston Chrysler Jeep Rolls out a New Line for Speech - By Stephanie Owens
Internet Technologies in the Contact Center - By Ken Rehor
Speech Technology: Finally, a Competitive Necessity - By William Meisel
Is the Game Over for Speech Recognition? - By Robin Springer
Industry Dashboard: Datamonitor - By Daniel Hong [Insight into the uptake of speech recognition technology across various market segments in the industry]
The Alpha Bail - By Walter Roland [Speech recognition engines have trouble recognizing individual letters when uttered in isolation, but there are compensatory measures]
Innovations:Speech Technology with Impact - By Nancy Jamison
Detecting Emotion - By Judith Markowitz [Creating Text to Speech that can express a range of emotion and attitudes in dialogues (called “expressive TTS”)]
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06. Bill recognising DNA as evidence to be introduced in Parliament - Manorama Online [India] - Dec 4, 2006
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- -Bhopal: As Madhya Pradesh law enforcing agencies mull ways to prepare a DNA database of criminals, a bill aimed at recognising DNA as evidence in crimes, laying uniform norms for its fingerprinting technique and preparing its databank, is likely to be tabled during coming monsoon session of Parliament.
"We have solved the first round of queries by the concerned ministries - Law, Home and Science - on the bill. It will be brought before the Cabinet soon," DNA Profiling Advisory Committee Member-Secretary Dr Seyed Ehtesham Hasnain said. "The bill is expected to be tabled in the monsoon session of Parliament as budget session is likely to be hectic," said Hasnain, a member of the committee under Biotechnology department formed to oversee and enforce regulations for DNA profiling, testing, DNA databank and crime investigations, among others.
"The bill will recognise DNA as evidence and improve efficacy of justice delivery system greatly, besides offering uniform quality control and quality assurance in DNA fingerprinting technique and laying guidelines for preparation and use of a DNA database of criminals," he said.
Need for uniform norms of DNA fingerprinting technique was felt with several state forensic laboratories and private agencies entering the field, said the former Director of Centre for DNA Fingerprinting and Diagnostics (CDFD, Hyderabad) which, in collaboration with the National Academy of Legal Studies and Research (NALSAR), had drafted the bill. "In order to ensure admissibility of DNA fingerprints in courts of law as concrete evidence, the bill lays down strict quality control procedures," he said.
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07. Is investor data secure enough? - Rediff.com [India] - Jan 4, 2005
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The Securities and Exchange Board of India's 'MAPIN' system has elicited enormous controversy. Many people have instinctively flinched from the prospect of a database of fingerprints. But after a protracted process of public discussion, Sebi has now decided to go ahead with MAPIN (Market Participant and Investor scheme).
On balance, this appears to be a wise decision. MAPIN is crucially important to solve two problems: insider trading and market manipulation.
Orwellian as it may seem, securities regulators in mature market economies do maintain a database of the individuals who make up the senior management of listed companies, their relatives, and so on.
The typical pattern found in India is that a sharp movement in prices comes before a public announcement. Once proper databases are in place, it will become possible to identify which insiders traded ahead of the announcement. MAPIN is a necessary foundation for that next step.
Similarly, market manipulation typically involves concerted actions by a few people who violate position limits by spreading their transactions across multiple brokers. It will become possible to identify the full position of a wrongdoer by using MAPIN. Indeed, there is no meaning to 'market wide position limits' in the absence of a system like MAPIN.
In other countries, the infrastructure for establishing citizen identity -- such as the social security number in the United States -- is available off the shelf for financial sector policy.
In India, such identity infrastructure is lacking. It was supposed to be the job of the department of posts to build it. However, if you want to get something done, do it yourself: hence the securities markets have chosen to build this complex piece of infrastructure themselves.
Given the inherent ease of opening multiple accounts in India, Sebi has resorted to using fingerprints to ensure the uniqueness of each account. This is a milestone for India.
Experience has shown that it is possible to obtain multiple passports, multiple drivers' licences and multiple PAN numbers. It is a struggle to have one unique EPFO account number. But it is not possible for one person to obtain multiple MAPIN numbers.
These strengths of MAPIN do not deny the very real concerns about privacy of data. If a private investigator could tap Amar Singh's Reliance telephone on the basis of a forged authorisation letter, what is to ensure privacy of the information with MAPIN? Can computer-scanned thumbprints, obtained from MAPIN, be used to frame a person at a crime scene?
The Amar Singh case involved attack by a private individual. More often, in India, the worst perpetrators in terms of violation of privacy are employees of the government. Are all MAPIN data available to the income tax department? Can the police query one's record? Can the police run a search on the full database?
Advocates of civil liberties view MAPIN with great concern, given India's traditional weaknesses on the core principles of a liberal society.
So far, the experience with protecting the privacy of demat account data has been satisfactory. However, with the increasing complexity of information systems, such as the Tax Information Network, the MAPIN database, and the Central Record Keeping Agency of the New Pension System, these concerns about privacy need to be taken very seriously. Hence, what is needed is a white paper on the privacy of these information systems, which answers all the above questions.====================
08. Firm's failure allowed criminal into home, judge says - BY LESLIE BALDACCI - Chicago Sun Times - Jan 4, 2006
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An in-home care company's failure to conduct a fingerprint check allowed a housekeeping aide with a criminal background into the home of an elderly man, whom she attacked and robbed at knifepoint, a Cook County judge has ruled.
Donald Barlow, 87, was "knocked around" and bruised during an attack by a masked intruder Oct. 27, 2003. Deana Handcox, his in-home housekeeper three days a week, later pleaded guilty to the crime.
Two weeks after the incident, Barlow suffered a mental breakdown, according to his family's attorney, F. John Cushing III. Barlow became convinced that another person was hiding in the next room and armed himself with a box cutter. Barlow was placed in a nursing home, where he died four months later.
27 aliases
Barlow's family sued Help at Home Inc., alleging it did not send Handcox's fingerprints to Illinois State Police after a preliminary background check raised red flags. The initial check, State Police said, showed multiple records that might match Handcox, but it needed her fingerprints to be certain.
Handcox, who Cushing said used 27 aliases and eight Social Security numbers, served part of a 42-month sentence for attempted burglary in Barlow's attack. She was paroled a year ago. Her prior record, dating to 1990, included jail time for felony prostitution, delivering a controlled substance, battery and theft, according to state records.
Circuit Judge Susan Zwick's Dec. 29 pretrial ruling came in the civil lawsuit brought by Barlow's family. Zwick allowed 40 facts submitted by Barlow's attorneys to be admitted as truth, invoking a Supreme Court rule requiring response within a certain time period.
Januari Smith, spokeswoman for the Illinois Department on Aging, said businesses such as Help at Home are required to conduct background checks under state law.
State police background check
Help at Home has 54 branches in seven states.
The company's Web site says that "all of our staff is completely trained, tested, background-checked and closely monitored by our staffing supervisors."
A lawyer for Help at Home, Siobhan M. Murphy, said a background check was part of company policy, but the company had no comment "regarding the pending discovery decision which is not final and relates to a disputed case."
"At the time in issue, company policy was to seek a state police background check. If the state returned no results or was inconclusive, the company would then engage in a background check which may include an additional commercial or fingerprint-based check," Murphy said.
The lawsuit has not yet gone to trial.
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09. Criminal checks for coaches? Phillipsburg council debates scrutinizing volunteers. - By SARAH CASSI - The Express-Times [New Jersey] - January 04, 2006
PHILLIPSBURG | Volunteer coaches, firefighters and emergency squad members could face mandatory criminal history background checks in the coming year.
Town council's ordinance requiring the background checks had its first reading Tuesday night, and a final vote is scheduled for the Jan. 17 meeting.
Council initially discussed requiring the background checks for volunteer coaches in the town's recreational leagues when they were crafting pedophile-free zone legislation last year.
Council President Jim Shelly said town attorney Joel Kobert's firm suggested the legislation be broadened to include the fire department and emergency squad volunteers -- the original ordinance only focused on coaches. Shelly said the addition was appropriate because those volunteers enter homes where children are present.
The background checks would include fingerprinting by the state and criminal history checks by the town's police department for current and future volunteers, said town clerk Michele Broubalow.
Volunteers could be pulled from their posts or disqualified from volunteering for convictions including sexual offenses, homicide, kidnapping, assault, robbery, theft, forgery and domestic violence.
If a volunteer would refuse the check, Broubalow said they would be removed from their post and prevented from volunteering for the town.
Shelly said there will be an appeal process if someone feels the background check is erroneous.
The costs of such a program have not been nailed down. Mayor Harry Wyant said he did not know the total number of the town's volunteers or the total cost for requiring the checks.
Wyant said the checks have not been budgeted into the 2006 spending plan at this time.
Broubalow said the town has over 100 volunteer coaches. She said fingerprinting estimates have run from $36 to $38 per person, but added fingerprinting for a liquor license by the state costs $52.
Shelly is looking to the Megan Nicole Kanka Foundation, a nonprofit organization named for the 7-year-old girl whose rape and murder in 1994 spawned nationwide sex-offender registration, for funding.
The foundation runs "Check 'Em Out," a program that pays half the cost of state and federal fingerprint checks on coaches and managers in New Jersey nonprofit sports organizations.
Shelly said he did not know if the recreational clubs will be responsible for paying the additional half or if the town will help in some way.
Shelly also said it was unknown if the foundation's program would cover the fire department and emergency squad checks as well.
Shelly said if the ordinance passes, the checks could start as soon as the town earned the grant from the Kanka foundation or council could begin the checks earlier and could use the Kanka foundation funding for reimbursements.
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10. 'State can be charged after boy's murder' by Gill Gifford and Sapa - Independent On Line {South Africa} January 04 2006
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The parents of Steven Siebert - the 6-year-old Sandton boy murdered in Plettenberg Bay - probably have good grounds on which to sue the government for negligence.
This is the opinion of photographer Alix Carmichele, who succeeded in a similar case against the state. She had been viciously raped and assaulted by a man who had a criminal record and a four-year suspended sentence hanging over him, and was then released on free bail after committing another assault. It was during this period that he attacked Carmichele.
In 2003 the Constitutional Court ruled that the government had been negligent and that Carmichele should be financially compensated for the harm she suffered.
"I won my case and changed the law, but
I still need to be awarded my dues," she said on Tuesday.
The state has offered her a R175 000 settlement, which she has refused.
Her case, however, bears marked similarities to the murder of Steven, whose body was found near his family's rented holiday home in Plettenberg Bay on Christmas Eve.
Police quickly arrested a suspect, originally identified as Theuns Christian Olivier. However, during his second court appearance on Tuesday, it became apparent that he also used the name Raymond Sinclair, and was possibly not a South African citizen.
Police have since confirmed that the 47-year-old handyman had been charged with sexually assaulting five boys at a Ladysmith, KwaZulu-Natal, shelter where he had worked as a caretaker.
The case was withdrawn, but was reopened on the orders of the KwaZulu Natal director of public prosecutions, who wanted it put back on the court roll.
But the new investigation stalled when Olivier could not be found and rearrested.
Steven's uncle, Paul Buys, said the family were still coming to terms with the boy's death and had not thought about possibly taking legal action against the state. "But you can't help wondering why this man was wandering around the country."
Lisa Vetten, of the Centre for the Study of Violence and Reconciliation, said the case demonstrated the need for policy guidelines on when cases can and cannot be withdrawn.
"There are a disturbingly high number of cases withdrawn by both the police and the courts for purely administrative reasons - things like a docket not reaching court on time or witnesses not being subpoenaed - reasons that are basically unacceptable," she said.
Joan van Niekerk, of Childline, said the case also showed the court's lack of understanding concerning the issue of paedophilia.
"Very often, cases involving children are seen only as indecent assault, and bail hearings take place in the lower courts. And if there is no apparent physical injury to the child, the case is not taken very seriously and bail is easily granted without anyone looking at a pattern (of behaviour shown by the accused)."
Investigating officer John Nomdoe said the state was expecting the results of a fingerprint analysis to help clarify who the accused really was.
His case was postponed to March 3 in the Knysna magistrate's court on Tuesday.
Nomdoe said the accused did not apply for bail and was not asked to plead.
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11. Real-life CSIs battle TV myths - Technology has helped forensic officers, but nothing's as easy as it is on television - By IAN ROBERTSON - Toronto Sun - Jan 4, 2006
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Forensic officer Det. Rob Hofstetter checks a handgun for residue and fingerprints at the forensic lab at Peel Regional Police headquarters on Hurontario St. (Dave Thomas ,Sun)
BRAMPTON -- The most impossible evidence a Peel Regional Police forensics detective has seen on a CSI episode was the audio recording of a killer in action.
Actors portraying forensic officers removed an unfired, soft-clay pot from the pottery room at a mental institution, placed it on a turntable "and laser recording striations reproduced the argument that led up to the murder," Det. Rob Hofstetter said in an interview.
"That one got my biggest laugh," said the six-year veteran of the force and three-year forensics detective.
His other favourite was a shooting scene on CSI in which cops used a genuine-style analyzer to test air hours after a murder in a school washroom. So far so good.
The surprise came when the team was able to isolate the specific perfume worn by the killer from potentially dozens of normal washroom gases, Hofstetter said.
"You can sample the air for chemicals, but there's nothing I'm aware of where a computer program could analyze what perfume brand a person was wearing hours later," he said. "That's just ridiculous."
SHAKING HIS HEAD
Despite the presence of police consultants, Hofstetter is often left shaking his head after seeing TV investigators "eating their sandwich, chewing gum, or smoking a cigarette" while visiting a crime scene.
Traces of such items could taint real forensic evidence-gathering, he said.
And while old-style TV shows and movies showed fedora-wearing, cigar-chomping detectives rolling over a body for a good look at the face and wounds, "there is no reason for a homicide officer to be in the scene until we're finished with it."
After all the evidence is photographed, recorded, charted and bagged, "we usually walk through the scene with homicide officers, step by step," Hofstetter said.
Admitting he's no expert on U.S. law, he said based on Canadian laws, "in every one-hour episode, they depict about 10 breaches of charter rights," with TV "officers" demanding and getting saliva swabs for DNA testing "without a lawyer being consulted.
"We need a warrant signed by a judge, which can take six hours to get," he sighed, adding that Canadian homicide and sex-crimes investigators often bemoan the volume of paperwork and time spent waiting, compared to often less time-consuming American regulations.
TV forensic teams always find fingerprints on empty cartridge casings found at murder scenes. Ah, no.
Because extreme heat is generated when a cartridge is fired, because the brass casing is round and may only show a trace of a fingerprint, and because shells ejected from a semi-automatic may land in mud, be scarred by gravel, a hard surface or lie in the rain or snow, "we may have a 1-in-10 chance of matching them," Hofstetter said in an interview.
Other forensic officers interviewed weren't as optimistic.
"When you're loading the gun, you're putting a fair bit of pressure on the end of the round to force it into the clip," said Toronto Police FIS Det.-Const. Martin Doyle. "As a result, fingerprints smear.
"But the main problem with something this size is the curvature."
But what some shooters may not realize is that the indentations and scrapes left on a brass casing as it spits out of the ejector gate of a pistol can be matched, using an IBIS (Integrated Ballistics Information System), which takes closeup digital photos from every angle.
CASINGS TRACED
Law enforcement agencies around the world whose officers rapidly collect casings from a shooting scene can compare them on a computerized IBIS system with other "brass" they find or seize. Sometimes they can be traced to a seized gun, but if not, police hope they can use such matches to trace a gunman's favourite haunts.
Narrowing likely matches to 10 possible files returned by the computer is a vast improvement on the old method -- manually checking thousands of file photos.
In another CSI episode, Hofstetter said material similar to Mikrosil was poured into a victim's stab wound in a morgue after a pathologist discovered the knife's tip had been broken off as the killer pulled out the blade.
Real police use the material to cast footprints, but in this case, they produced a replica of a perfect knife, he said. "It was a complete farcity."
When someone is stabbed or shot, the entry wound and trajectory path closes up inside a body. Blood and tissue fills cavities, which prevents replica-making.
A real forensic expert can tell whether someone was cut with a serrated knife, which leaves a jagged wound, or by a razor-sharp blade, which leaves a straight cut.
Hofstetter said determining the difference narrows down the weapon police are seeking, which aids in getting a search warrant for a specific weapon. Such findings also reduce the number of comparison tests necessary.
AIR-BAG PHOTOGRAPHY
In another show that combined real forensics with clever fiction, pathologist Dr. Jordan Cavanaugh, played by Jill Hennessy, blew iodized gas through a glass tube filled with cotton, producing a T-shirt-quality colour photo of a driver whose face had left an indentation on the surface of an airbag after a girlfriend died in his truck in Bombs Away, a second-year episode of Crossing Jordan.
It's so good, she recognizes the driver, whom she had met earlier. She confronts him and he kills himself out of remorse.
When asked about the airbag science, Hofstetter just laughed.
On TV, fingerprints are regularly sent off to a central registry for comparison with known criminals and, voila, within seconds, a match is made or rejected.
But unlike the RCMP's central computerized registry, which is available to all Canadian police, there is no central fingerprint registry in the U.S., said Hofstetter and Shane Turnidge, a Peel AFIS (Automated Fingerprint Identification System) expert formerly with Toronto Police.
The FBI has an integrated AFIS computerized registry and various states exchange data, but Hofstetter said 11 states don't contribute. An officer who wants to check someone's prints must track down the force that previously took them and hope that they remain on file.
Computers are marvellous, but when on a television show a scanned fingerprint is overlaid on one from another source, and a computer program spits out the percentage of certainty, it's fake, Turnidge says.
Fingerprints are scanned onto police files and compared by an analyst, he said. No overlaying system exists.
An expert must know what to look for, chart proven ridges, whorls and markings on a grid, then apply mathematical probabilities for an exact match to be made. There's no such thing as an instant answer.
Turnidge and Hoffstetter said Canada has an advantage as a smaller country than the United States.
American law enforcement agencies have about 60 million people's fingerprints taken from the country's 250 million citizens, or one fingerprint for every four or five people, they said. With about 3.5 million people, prints for only 10% of Canada's population are on file.
"Chances of making a match are astronomical, based on the sheer volume of what they have," Turnidge said of the U.S. system.
The RCMP has beefed up its AFIS system for police contributors, Toronto Police spent $9 million over several years to improve its system and Peel police have a new computer on order.
"The biggest fallacy is that computers will solve everything," Turnidge said. "In reality, they are tools."
So are digital cameras, which Hofstetter said have greatly aided police, who often rely on SOCO (Scenes of Crime Officers) when "ident" officers aren't available.
"Your comfort level with a digital camera is vastly improved," since each image can be checked before the picture is taken. "It limits the amount of photos you have to make."
Another major breakthrough in crime scene investigations is the development in Europe about two years ago of Blue Star, a "blood reagent," which shows more trace evidence under worse conditions and brighter lighting than old-style luminous reagents in use since before World War II.
Lasers that provide alternate light sources have also helped police find traces of chemicals.
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12. Changeable Fingerprint - If someone steals your fingerprint, "cancelable biometrics" software from IBM can issue a new one. - By David Talbot - Technology Review - Dec 2005/Jan 2006
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Your fingerprints are yours and yours alone, and that makes them a useful tool for confirming the identity of people doing things like conducting secure banking transactions or passing through corporate security checkpoints.
Trouble is, it's theoretically possible for a hacker to break into the software of, say, an employer, steal a copy of your stored fingerprint, and later use it to gain entrance.
So researchers at IBM have come up with "cancelable biometrics": if someone steals your fingerprint, you're just issued a new one, like a replacement credit card number.
The IBM algorithm takes biometric data and runs it through one of an infinite number of "transform" programs. The features of a fingerprint, for example, might get squeezed or twisted. A bank could take a fingerprint scan when it enrolls a customer, run the print through the algorithm, and then use only the transformed biometric data for future verification.
If that data is stolen, the bank simply cancels the transformed biometric and issues a new transformation. And since different transformations can be used in different contexts -- one at a bank, one at an employer -- cross-matching becomes nearly impossible, protecting the privacy of the user.
Finally, the software makes sure that the original image can't be reconstituted from the transformed versions. IBM hopes to offer the software package as a commercial product within three years.
13. Security in the blink of an eye - Iris recognition is poised for growth, winning fans for its ease and accuracy - BY KEVIN COUGHLIN - Star-Ledger (New Jersey) - Jan 4, 2006
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Henry Morgan used to cringe at the sight of tourists. The sales manager frequently flies from Orlando International Airport in Florida, and all too often, he would get stuck in long security lines packed with Disney tour groups.
Last summer, Morgan enrolled his eyeballs in an experimental program that identifies him as a low-security-risk passenger. Now, he sleeps longer, comes to the airport later and zips past the lines and through security in a matter of seconds.
"The sooner they can spread this around the country, the happier we frequent travelers will be," the Orlando resident says.
Morgan's rapture largely is made possible by iris scanning, a technology with strong New Jersey ties that some analysts say is ready for takeoff.
Iris scanning involves gazing into a camera, which uses harmless infrared light to record the circular portion of the eyeball that surrounds the pupil, called the iris. Software compares this image with an iris scan stored in a computer or on a smart card, to verify if someone is on an approved list -- or a terror-watch list.
"Irises are incredibly intricate. Like a snowflake, no two are the same," says David Johnston of LG Electronics' iris technology division in Jamesburg.
An iris is creased with intricate ridges and valleys; it's this texture that gets scanned. Two hundred and forty details are analyzed, far exceeding the number of data points sifted for fingerprint or face recognition. And irises don't wear down like fingers or age like faces.
"Overall, it's an extremely accurate technology," says Raj Nanavati, a partner in the International Biometric Group, a New York consulting firm.
Your odds of being misidentified by an iris scan are about 1 in 1.2 million -- and just 1 in 1.44 trillion if you scan both eyes, says Frank Fitzsimmons, chief executive of Iridian Technologies in Moorestown. Iridian licenses iris patents to vendors such as Panasonic in Secaucus and Oki of Mount Laurel, and sells systems for storing and matching scans.
AIRPORT SCREENING
Iris scans and fingerprints are required in the Orlando program, run with government approval by Lockheed Martin and Verified Identity Pass, a company started by Court TV founder Steve Brill. More than 12,000 frequent travelers have paid $80 each to enroll.
A few applicants were rejected because of fingerprint anomalies or problems with background checks, a Verified spokeswoman says.
Participants present their smart card at an airport kiosk and submit to iris and fingerprint scans. They are exempted from random, secondary screening after passing through standard security.
Next summer, the Transportation Security Administration plans to expand a "registered traveler" program tested this year, at no cost to participants, at airports in Minneapolis-St. Paul, Los Angeles, Houston, Boston and Washington, D.C.
The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey wants the Registered Traveler program expanded to Newark Liberty International Airport and JFK and LaGuardia airports in New York, spokesman Marc Lavorgna says.
"We would want a system that is reasonable to use, that would help increase security at the airports by concentrating resources on passengers that need to be screened and making the process more efficient," Lavorgna says.
Verification takes about 10 seconds on average, TSA Assistant Secretary Kip Hawley told Congress in November. Combining iris scans with fingerprints successfully identifies travelers 99 percent of the time, an improvement vs. fingerprints alone, he testified.
Airports in Canada and Europe already use iris recognition to speed travelers through security. The TSA is working with other federal agencies and the industry to ensure systems from different vendors produce uniform results.
"We expect another 50 airports to go online next year," says Tim Meyerhoff of Panasonic, which sells iris-scanning cameras for $3,700.
GROWING BIOMETRIC
With sales of about $82 million this year, iris recognition accounts for a mere sliver of the $1.5 billion global market for biometric systems, IBG's Nanavati says. The biometrics market, growing swiftly since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, includes technologies for recognizing fingerprints, faces, voices and hand geometry.
More vendors soon may be giving irises a look. Iridian's patent on the concept of scanning irises -- dubbed the Flom patent for inventor Leonard Flom, a Connecticut ophthalmologist -- expired last February in the U.S. It expires in Europe and Asia early in 2006.
"This will basically result in the market moving from a virtually monopolistic state to an oligopoly with a few new entrants to compete with Iridian, primarily on price," Frost & Sullivan analyst Sapna Capoor says. She expects iris scanning to become a half-billion-dollar industry by 2009.
Privately held Iridian still boasts experience -- along with patents on how to make, secure and match iris images, Fitzsimmons says, predicting iris recognition will become "as ubiquitous as digital cameras."
Iridian is putting its algorithms on a chip to work with small cameras in hand-held computers, laptops and hotel room doors. Expect to see iris readers at checkout counters, and iris scans on drivers licenses before long, Fitzsimmons says.
The United Arab Emirates has used iris scans to catch 55,000 people trying to sneak back into the country with fake identity documents, Fitzsimmons says. Creating an iris scan from a famous National Geographic photograph, Iridian helped the magazine identify an Afghan woman who had appeared on its cover years earlier as a girl, Fitzsimmons adds.
LG Electronics, which is embroiled in a bitter licensing dispute with Iridian, is deploying iris scanning in India to combat fraud. Six million people now tote food rationing cards bearing their iris scans, with another 74 million to follow, LG's Johnston says.
All of which ominously suggests "Minority Report," the 2002 thriller in which Tom Cruise resorts to an eyeball transplant to elude government scanners.
Fitzsimmons says iris recognition will tame identity theft. Could someone beat the system with a stolen eyeball?
"The image of an iris rapidly degrades once it leaves the body. You can't use it too long," Fitzsimmons says. Besides, he adds with a laugh, "if that's your problem, maybe you need something stronger than iris recognition."
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14. Chiropractor opening 24-hour gym in city - By Eric Fleischauer - Decatur Daily [Alabama] - Jan 4, 2005
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A Tennessee chiropractor, convinced Decatur could support a gym and fitness center, hopes to open one off Beltline Road Southwest in April.
Tom Bender, who previously owned a fitness center in Indiana, has begun construction of Bender’s Gym.
The center will be open to members 24 hours a day and seven days a week, Bender said. He will install a fingerprint identification device to keep out non-members.
He said he decided on 24-hour access to attract second- and third-shift workers.
Bender said the gym will have free weights, circuit-training equipment, lockers, showers and three tanning beds. It will also feature classes in aerobics, yoga and stationary cycling.
The gym is under construction and is on Wimberly Drive near Fire Mountain restaurant.
Bender, whose chiropractic practice is in Pulaski, Tenn., said the cost will be about $40 a month for individuals and $50 a month for families.
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15. Just touch and go - By Teri Finneman, The Forum [North Dakota]- January 04, 2006
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Grocery shoppers can leave their money at home and pay by finger after a new technology is activated at local stores this week.
Cash Wise Foods and Hornbacher’s Foods stores in Fargo and Moorhead are implementing Pay By Touch, a technology that essentially turns a finger into a debit card.
The service allows registered customers to pay for their groceries by having their index finger scanned and by inputting a seven-digit code.
The system then accesses the customer’s information and deducts the grocery bill from the checking account or EBT food stamp benefit card account the customer provided at registration.
“We see it as a wonderful advantage for customers,” said Cash Wise spokeswoman Sue Mackert. “It’s easy, convenient and secure.”
Growing concerns about identity theft prompted the Coborn’s chain to look into biometrics as a way to protect customers, Mackert said. Coborn’s owns Cash Wise.
Pay By Touch limits the number of eyes that see customer information, she said.
To use the service, customers do a one-time, brief registration with Pay By Touch. Customers can then use the service at any store that offers the technology.
To register, customers must bring a valid form of photo identification, as well as a personal check or EBT card. The account number provided will be the one billed.
The system then scans the customer’s right and left index fingers to keep on file.
The finger scan does not use the full fingerprint, but instead detects a limited number of touch, or data, points, said Gerry Braegelmann, Coborn‘s information technology director. The system cannot turn that information into a full fingerprint.
Customers must also provide a seven-digit number, or search code, that helps the process of finding the finger scan match in the database.
Customer information is encrypted and stored at secure IBM data centers. No one will have access to the information, Mackert said.
Dean Hornbacher thinks Pay By Touch is the most secure method of payment for customers. He’s already signed up for the service.
“You’re not leaving any kind of a paper trail or anything at all. Nobody else has your fingerprint,” said Hornbacher, president of Hornbacher’s Foods.
Hornbacher’s customers can begin signing up for the service today at all store locations. Cash Wise will have the service ready by Thursday at the Fargo location and by Jan. 12 at the Moorhead store.
Pay By Touch will be available within the next year at all Cash Wise and Coborn’s locations, including Bismarck and Park Rapids, Minn., Mackert said.
Phone calls to a Sunmart Foods spokesperson about whether the grocery chain would also offer the Pay By Touch technology were not returned Tuesday.
Mackert thinks grocery stores are taking the lead on the technology, but she expects other retailers will begin using it as well.
“It’s convenient. It’s easier for customers, and it makes sense,” she said.
Photo caption: Cash Wise Foods in Fargo is using a new technology that will allow customers to pay for groceries via a finger-scanning system that acts like a debit card. Bruce Crummy / The Forum
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16 Mexico hires biometrics companies to beef up prison security - Associated Press - Forth Worth Star Telegram (Texas) - Jan 4, 2006
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MEXICO CITY - The Mexican government has purchased $400,000 worth of biometrics systems, including fingerprint-, iris- and face-recognition technology, San Diego-based ImageWare announced Wednesday.
The purchase is designed to increase security at Mexican prisons, according to a December release by another biometrics company involved in the project, Australia's Argus Solutions.
Mexico has been working to increase security and fight corruption at its prisons, where drug lords manage to run their cartels and many top criminals have staged successful escapes.
The new technology will allow the Mexican government to control access to secure areas, ImageWare said in a news release.
Bruce Lyman, Argus Solutions' chief executive officer, said Mexican prisons will be able to more closely monitor who comes and goes.
"The technology will focus initially on visitor management and tracking, similar to that which we have already implemented in a number of Australian prisons," Lyman said====================
17. Plan to change prints system angers experts by LUCY ADAMS - The Herald (UK) - Jan 04, 2006
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Senior officials plan to change completely the way fingerprint evidence is analysed in Scotland despite disagreements between experts.
Documents obtained under Freedom of Information laws reveal that plans to introduce a new standard have been in place for years.
This is despite the sharp difference in opinions between experts over the fingerprint identification in the Shirley McKie case. The former Strathclyde Police officer is seeking £750,000 damages after losing her job following false accusations of perjury when her "fingerprint" was found at the house of a murder victim.
Since 1953, Scottish experts have used a standard which requires at least 16 matching characteristics between two fingerprints for them to be considered a match.
The non-numeric standard, which has been introduced in the US and England, is based on a detailed assessment of the quality and uniqueness of the print rather than the number of points which are the same.
In March 2001, a non-numeric fingerprint implementation group was established to introduce the new method and staff have been trained and tested in its use.
The documents show the new standard should have been agreed by the justice minister and lord advocate in July and launched in August but the development has been delayed.
Solicitors are discussing a possible settlement with Miss McKie before her case against ministers goes to court in February.
Ministers have conceded that a misidentification of the print was made. However, the experts who originally identified the print as hers have stood by their decision.
Ms McKie lost her position with the Strathclyde force after her thumbprint was said to have been found at the home of murder victim Marion Ross. In 1997, David Asbury was jailed for Ms Ross's murder, but his conviction was overturned after independent experts cast doubt on claims that prints found in the house, in Kilmarnock, belonged to him.
Ms McKie was cleared of lying under oath in 1999, after insisting the print at the murder scene was not hers.
Last year, three fingerprint experts published a report on the case, stating their opinion that the print was not Ms McKie's. John McGregor, John Dingwall and Gary Dempster, of Grampian fingerprint bureau, also called for an independent inquiry.
A document following their report, circulated to all fingerprint staff by Ewan Innes, the head of the fingerprint bureau at the Scottish Criminal Record Office (SCRO), claims that identification is fact and not opinion.
However, in response Joanne Tierney, the head of training for the bureau, wrote to staff, stating: "I feel that this is not an entirely accurate statement of the belief of a majority of experts.
"I for one believe that fingerprint experts, when presenting evidence of identification, are stating evidence of expert opinion.
"However, with regard to the McKie mark there is a perception amongst fingerprint experts within the national fingerprint community that there has been an attempt to resolve this issue by simply stating that experts are entitled to their own opinion and that it should be acceptable for experts to disagree on questions of identity.
"This perception strikes at the fundamental confidence with which experts state their opinion of identifications on a daily basis."
Iain McKie, Shirley's father and a retired police officer, said: "In theory it is a good idea because this should provide a better system, but my fear is that is not what we are getting because the quality, training and expertise is not there.
"It would be dangerous to introduce a new system when they have not yet resolved the mess and dispute about the David Asbury case. The Scottish Fingerprint Service is still fractured and in dispute about this."
A spokeswoman for the SCRO said: "With regard to non-numeric standard, any potential introduction date has not yet been determined.
"Ms McKie's case is completely unrelated to the future introduction of the non-numeric standard of presenting fingerprint evidence. We are unable to comment on any aspect of this case due to the ongoing court proceedings.
"All experts within the SFS agree that fingerprint evidence is expert opinion of identification based on the scientific fact that fingerprints are unique to every individual."
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18. FRAMING THE FUTURE - Crime fight goes high-tech to protect kids, assets - By ERIKO ARITA - The Japan Times - Jan 4, 2006
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Not long ago most people in Japan felt this was one of the most crime-free nations in the world, but recent high-profile, violent crimes have shattered that sense of security.
News photo
The veins of a Fujitsu Ltd. official's palm are shown on a computer equipped with the firm's palm vein identification device.
True to the saying that necessity is the mother of invention, high demand has led to new technologies to protect people and their property.
According to the Japan Security Systems Association, the domestic market for security systems has been growing in recent years, with sales rising to around 1.2 trillion yen in fiscal 2003 from 838.4 billion yen in fiscal 1999.
"There has been a rise in the number of security appliances sold as the number of crimes has grown and authorities provide (the public with) education and instructions on crime prevention," association official Koichi Hori said.
With crimes increasing and violent, even deadly assaults on children making headlines, a key focus of new technology has been to protect kids from harm.
Integrated circuit tags that store information, originally introduced to manage the transport and distribution of goods, are now serving as anticrime devises.
Between April and July, NTT Data Corp. and two other companies experimented with a service using wireless IC tags given to 188 children in Aoba Ward, Yokohama.
Toshihiko Horima, senior executive manager of the market development section of NTT Data's third public administration systems sector, said he came up with the idea for the service after a man massacred eight students in June 2001 at an Osaka elementary school.
"I thought we needed a system to know what is happening to children since parents cannot always watch over them," said Horima, a father of three.
In the Yokohama experiment, children carried IC tags that transmit radio signals to 27 receivers installed in a 1-sq.-km area.
When a child with a tag passed near a receiver, the parents were notified with an e-mail message.
Confronted by danger, children could push a button on the tag to transmit an emergency signal to parents, local residents registered to take part in the trial and a private security company.
Another Japanese security company is already marketing a similar service using GPS.
The IC tag used in NTT Data's trial is of the active type, meaning it has a built-in battery and sends radio signals to receivers. It was developed by Tokyo-based Totoku Electric Co., the first Japanese firm to manufacture this type of IC tag.
More commonly used IC tags, for example those built into East Japan Railway Co.'s Suica cards, are passive -- they have no battery and are recognized when placed close to a reader machine.
Totoku's IC tags boast the longest battery life in the world -- 19 months when the radio transmission interval is once per second, according to company official Yoshiyuki Ota.
Since October 2004, some private schools have introduced the tags to inform parents of the time kids arrive at and leave school, he said.
NTT Data's Horima said most of the parents who took part in the company's experiment said they liked the service, but he acknowledged that hurdles remain before the tags can be mass marketed.
For example, the receivers can only catch radio waves within a radius of some 30 meters, so the system can't cover all the places children go, he said. The company would have to set up many more receivers, each costing hundreds of thousands of, yen for better coverage.
Israeli and U.S. firms are the leaders in active IC tags, according to Horima. The Israeli firm AeroScout has a tag with a reception range of 100 meters.
NTT Data is currently experimenting with AeroScout tags in another trial in Yokohama that aims to prevent traffic accidents by alerting drivers to the presence of children.
Totoku's Ota said that while its tags have a shorter range, its system provides a more exact location because its antennas can catch radio waves from any direction, whereas those used by AeroScout only catch radio waves coming from the front.
"We've received a number of inquiries about our IC tags from systems integration firms," Ota said, noting his company also envisions marketing them overseas.
Another area of technological innovation is protection against identity theft.
With the rise in cash card forgeries, many banks have started equipping their automated teller machines with biometric security systems that can identify people by scanning their physical characteristics.
One such system employs palm vein identification. Fujitsu Ltd. said it has sold more than 10,000 units for ATMs, computers, office entrances and other uses since its system was put on the market in July 2004.
"Veins are impossible to forge because they are located in the body," said Akira Wakabayashi, director of Fujitsu's biometric business development department.
In October, the technology won The Wall Street Journal's 2005 Technology Innovation Award for Security in Networks.
Another biometric identification system gaining attention scans the iris, whose muscles form patterns unique to each individual.
In August, Tohoku University and Yamatake Corp. said they succeeded in developing software that uses a new iris identification method.
Their method produces detailed three-dimensional images of objects from pictures taken by two separate cameras, said Koji Kobayashi, director of Yamatake's biometric development office.
"The software can examine very closely how identical or different the image in (the system's) memory banks and the object (in the photos) are," he said.
Previously, there was only one commercialized method of iris identification, developed by Cambridge University professor John Daugman, according to Kobayashi. The Daugman method, which converts iris patterns into codes, was patented in the U.S. in 1991.
While the Daugman method is highly accurate and has been used by firms worldwide, its accuracy rate falls when used in a situation where the sun shines directly into someone's eyes, Kobayashi said.
Although such conditions will also reduce the accuracy of the Yamatake-Tohoku University system, the drop is less than that of Daugman's method, he said.
While some Japanese companies have developed top-level identification technologies using fingerprints, prints can change when the skin is dry or inflamed and as the person ages, Kobayashi said.
Palm veins can become unclear when a person has low blood pressure or bad circulation, he added. But iris patterns change little throughout one's lifetime.
Yamatake said it is now conducting market research on what products should employ the system.
Naohisa Komatsu, a Waseda University professor and an expert in biometric identification, said the level of technology Japanese companies have in the field is top-rate.
But he also pointed out that hurdles remain, among them compatibility and standardization, before biometric security systems take root in society.
For example, while Fujitsu's palm vein system is used by the Mitsubishi Tokyo Financial Group Inc., Hitachi Ltd.'s finger vein system debuted in December at ATMs of the Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group.
"A person with a bank account at Mitsubishi Tokyo will not be able to withdraw money at another bank unless the other bank also has the palm vein identification system," he said, arguing that companies need to consider how to make different identification systems compatible.
Methods to evaluate accuracy also need to be standardized, he said.
The evaluation issue and guidelines for protecting privacy when using physical characteristics as identification are among issues currently being discussed at a subcommittee of the International Organization for Standardization and the International Electrotechnical Commission specializing on standardization of biometric technologies, he said.
But while some Japanese firms are leaders in such technology, the overall level of this nation's technology for security equipment and systems ranks below those of the United States, Middle Eastern countries and Europe, which have experienced more crime and terrorism, according to Hori of the Japan Security Systems Association.
"(Japanese makers) need to put more thought into how to sell their products overseas," he said, adding that companies should also promote the advantages of their detailed designs and systems.
The veins of a Fujitsu Ltd. official's palm are shown on a computer equipped with the firm's palm vein identification device.
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19. Press Release - ManTech Awarded $10.5 Million Contract from the Transportation Security Administration to Support Alien Flight School Program - Dec 12, 2005
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FAIRFAX, Va.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Dec. 12, 2005--ManTech International Corporation (Nasdaq:MANT), a leading provider of innovative technologies and solutions focused on mission-critical national security programs for the Intelligence Community and the Departments of Defense, State, Homeland Security, Justice and other U.S. federal government customers, announced today that it was awarded a contract from the Department of Homeland Security, Transportation Security Administration (TSA) to provide analytic services for the vetting of non-U.S. citizens requesting flight training in the United States. The five-year, $10.5 million contract was competitively awarded.
The TSA's Alien Flight School Program (AFSP) is designed to prevent terrorists from receiving pilot training from flight schools. As a prerequisite to flight training, non-U.S. citizens must provide TSA with fingerprints, biographical information, including full name, passport and visa information - and training specifics such as the type of aircraft the candidate seeks instruction to operate.
"ManTech has broad experience in intelligence analysis, and we will apply those skills, and our knowledge of the AFSP to make this effort successful for TSA," said Robert A. Coleman, President and Chief Operating Officer, ManTech International Corporation.
ManTech professionals will assist TSA in reviewing alien candidate applications, working with a variety of databases to cross reference and characterize potential risks. ManTech assisted TSA in the development of acceptable techniques, processes and procedures necessary to implement the Congressional directives associated with the AFSP.
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20. Online procedures of DNRD [Dubai Naturalisation and Residency Department] are now fully functional - - Al Bawaba (Jordan) - Jan 3, 2006
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Dubai Naturalisation and Residency Department (DNRD) have announced that the online application procedures which faced a slowdown during the New Year holiday are now fully operational. System analysts from Oracle and engineers from DNRD have fixed the bugs on Oracle RAC (Real Application Clusters) application server on which some of DNRD’s online procedures reside. The debugging of the application server was delayed due to the extended New Year holidays.
Contrary to reports that appeared in certain sections of the media, all of DNRD’s manual services were operating normally and the department had bolstered up its over-the-counter services which processed 20,524 visa applications from January 1-3, 2006. DNRD’s online service during the same period processed 5,717 applications. In December 2005, DNRD had processed 239,713 online and 309,217 over-the-counter visa related applications.
Over the past week, DNRD was migrating its online procedures to the new RAC based engine, to add newly devised services to its customers and had rolled back its online services to the back up systems during the operation. DNRD’s new services that are currently available enables the users to scan and attach all the documents required for visa and residency formalities along with the online application form.
More than 10,000 companies and entities are registered to use DNRD’s online system, which at its peak usage logs over 100,000 users transacting in various visa and residency related procedures. DNRD’s IT infrastructure, based on IBM hardware and Oracle software solutions, is robust and highly scalable and has in place several mechanisms for mitigating data and service latency and load factor distribution. DNRD’s customer centric remit ensure that all its customers and users are provided with advance notice regarding service scale downs related to system maintenance, upgradation or migration.
Dubai Naturalisation and Residency Department (DNRD), was established in 1971. It consists of 12 Sections, six of which are main sections located within the premises of the administration, namely: Naturalization and Passports Section, Entry Permits Section, Residency Section, Investigation and Control Section, Administration and Finance Section and Information Technology Section. The other six sections are spread over Dubai and neighbouring area and include Dubai Airport passports Section, Rashid Port Passports Section, Shindagha Port Passports Section, Hamriyah port Passports Section, Jebel Ali Port Passports Section and Hatta Passports Section.
DNRD has recently installed a fast-track electronic passport control system at the Dubai International Airport, eGate that offers card-operated access to the airport to travellers through pre-registration. eGate helps passengers complete passport control within a few seconds, using an electronically operated foolproof fingerprint identification system. Dubai Airport is the first airport in the Middle East and the third in the world to install such an advanced passenger clearance system.
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21. US Government Pushes Banks to Tighten Up Online Security - By Paul Korzeniowski - Tech News World - Jan 4, 2006
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Although a firm date has not been set to put the new system in place, government auditors are expected to begin evaluating banks for compliance with the guideline at the end of 2006. "Many financial institutions had been moving toward stronger authentication, so they should have time to make the necessary changes," Spire Security's Pete Lindstrom told TechNewsWorld.
Next year's holiday season will be different in at least one small way than it was in 2005: The U.S. government recently mandated that financial institutions enhance their online security Free Trial: Eliminate IM compliance and security threats with policy and enforcement. systems by supplementing the traditional technique of passwords and user IDs with another form of user authentication. "The government initiative gives a clear and loud wake-up call to a procrastinating U.S. banking industry that has not moved beyond relying on single-factor reusable password authentication," said Avivah Litan, an industry analyst with Gartner Latest News about Gartner Group.
Traditionally, banks have relied on passwords and user IDs for a couple of reasons, starting with convenience. "Banks do not want to put security procedures in place that may discourage users from using their services," stated Pete Lindstrom, research director at Spire Security, a security consulting firm.
Simple Is as Simple Does
While they are simple to use, password security systems can be easily compromised. Typically, users are assigned default passwords; often financial institutions will assign users a common password and then ask the customer to change it once he or she uses the service. In many cases, users do not take that step and therefore leave their account information open to intruders.
Another problem is consumers often pick easy-to-remember passwords, such as their first name or simple numeric sequences, like 123456. The problem is that if a password is simple for the user to remember, it is also easy for a hacker Latest News about hacker to crack.
Financial institutions have been trying to address these problems by making consumers aware of potential danger and forcing them to work with more complex passwords. However, in order to remember them, users often write their passwords and IDs down on pieces of paper. If the user reads a password in a public place, a hacker may be able to glean the security data. In other cases, customers store the passwords in their computer files. If they lose their laptops or intruders break into them, users' personal information is compromised.
Consequently, U.S. officials determined that password authentication was insufficient to protect users and decided to make a change. "The rising number of cases involving identity theft meant some consumers were losing confidence in online financial services," noted Dan Blum, group research director at market research firm Burton Group.
High Hopes for New Rules
The Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council (FFIEC), which was formed in 1970 and includes the Federal Reserve System, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. and the National Credit Union Administration, oversees banking regulations in the U.S. The FFIEC's new set of rules, dubbed "Authentication in an Internet Get Linux or Windows Managed Hosting Services with Industry Leading Fanatical Support. Banking Environment," says banks must now rely on two-factor authorization, which adds another identity check along with a password system. This guideline replaces a previous set of rules issued to banks in 2001. The group is making changes, it says, "to reduce fraud, to inhibit identity theft, and to promote the legal enforceability of their electronic agreements and transactions."
Although a firm date has not been set to put the new system in place, government auditors are expected to begin evaluating banks for compliance with the guideline at the end of 2006. "Many financial institutions had been moving toward stronger authentication, so they should have time to make the necessary changes," Spire Security's Lindstrom told TechNewsWorld.
While the FFIEC said banks need to make a change, the regulatory organization did not mandate what type of additional authentication they should deploy. In fact, the guideline outlines a number of multi-factor authentication schemes that banks can use, such as a hardware tokens; scanning personal identifiers like a fingerprint or a person's iris; the bank calling the customer on a cell phone cell phone to verify a transaction; or banks issuing users sets of passwords that can only be used once. With the new guidelines being put into place, a key question becomes, which of these options will be most acceptable to consumers?
Consumer Acceptance
Hardware tokens have been available for many years. In this case, the bank issues a user a small device, such as a smart card (a credit card size device equipped with a microprocessor and software) or a password generator that plugs into a USB Latest News about USB port, and these devices provide passwords that match the ones used by a bank's security system. While these techniques can be effective, they have not been popular in the U.S. "Users do not want be burdened with having to remember to carry a device like a smart card," Burton Group's Blum told TechNewsWorld.
Biometrics can also prevent accounts from being compromised and do not require that users carry anything extra. However, there can be resistance to this technique from individuals who feel that their privacy Latest News about privacy is being violated.
Cell phone usage has become prevalent in the U.S., so relying on these devices to verify transactions seems viable. One potential challenge is figuring out how to handle transactions when a person is not carrying a phone or it is not working because a battery is low or the caller is outside a carrier's transmission range.
Issuing users sets of passwords seems like a simple approach to solving the authentication problem. Burton Group's Blum said a similar approach is already proving effective in Europe.
For the moment, since the FFIEC's initiative is so new, no clear cut preference has emerged in the U.S. "In the end, users will opt for the technique that is simplest to implement, and banks will select the one that is the least expensive to deploy," predicted Spire Security's Lindstrom. The preferred approaches likely will become clear as consumers begin to fill up their stockings approaching next year's holiday season.
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22. Press Release -
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Roger K. Sullivan - elected Vice President of the Liberty Alliance Management Board. Sullivan is Vice President of Business Development for Oracle's Identity Management solutions.
Bill Smith - elected Secretary of the Liberty Alliance Management Board for the fourth consecutive year. Smith is Director of Technology Development at Sun Microsystems.
Roger Martin - elected Treasurer on the Liberty Alliance Management Board. Martin is Director of Standards at AOL.
Officers of the Liberty Alliance Management Board are responsible for guiding the strategic direction of the organization on a global basis and based on member and industry requirements for open and interoperable identity solutions. The Liberty Alliance Management Board is made up of representatives from AOL, Ericsson, Fidelity Investments,
About the
The Liberty Alliance Project is a global alliance of companies, non-profit and government organizations developing open standards for federated network identity, interoperable strong authentication and Web services. Liberty Alliance is the only global identity organization with a Public Policy Expert Group (PPEG) offering guidance and best practices on privacy within all
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The technology of smart cards comes in contact with entrants by holding the biometric identification data such as of blood group, retina scan, finger print scan etc in a tiny chip.
The technology of smart cards comes in contact with entrants by holding the biometric identification data such as of blood group, retina scan, finger print scan etc in a tiny chip. The finance and point of purchase terminal i.e., kiosks enables the plastic smart card to identify the authenticity of purchase and other similar transactions as in insurance and health areas. This is irrespective of the extensive and advanced development in security surveillance and access control.
A market research report namely "Access Control Technologies and Market Forecast World Over (2007)" published by RNCOS ranks Asia Pacific as #1 with 44% smart cards issued. On the whole the smart card market is at 10% growth to touch $7.8 billion in 2006. In the aftermath of the airborne attacks, the US government is using the contact less paper based smart cards that would contain fiscal and biometric data of passengers to scrutinize the air passengers before they board the aircraft.
The merging of access control smart cards with transaction based card will continue to be a conversable topic as end users are mostly not willing to consider access control and cash less purchase as similar though service provider would want to reduce its infrastructure expenses.
To purchase your copy: http://www.marketsmonitor.com/category/COM19.html
For more information about the report please visit www.marketsmonitor.com
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24.
Deploying Identity-Related Compliance: Best Practices - by Glenn Choquette Director of Product Management
Fischer International - Sarbanges Oxley Compliance Journal - Jan 4, 2006
Domestic
and international regulations mandate business outcomes that most
organizations have pursued all along: improved efficiency, protection
of confidential information, integrity of financial information,
protection against fraud, etc.
Now that organizations have painstakingly gone through their
first round of compliance activities, they are searching for ways to
improve the timeliness and cost-effectiveness of their audit and
compliance processes. This paper is directed to these organizations,
and describes best practices that remove the hindrances of attaining
the benefits that identity-related compliance provides.
Identity Management (IdM) enables organizations to automate
many of the outcomes required by regulations such as Sarbanes-Oxley,
Gramm-Leach-Bliley and the European Privacy Directives. Without IdM,
compliance effort and costs are higher and are likely not sustainable.
Comprehensive compliance requires the capabilities and
stability available only with next-generation IdM suites; in
particular, it requires IdM suites with audit and compliance facilities
that have been organically designed into all aspects of the identity
management architecture, rather than being bolted on as an
afterthought.
Such solutions provide many other trickle-down benefits,
including making workflows self-documenting and easy to understand,
reducing the efforts of auditors, and so on. These solutions are the
key to long-term sustainability of identity-related compliance and at
the lowest possible cost.
Compliance Should Not Be an Afterthought or an Add-on
Why do most IdM vendors charge extra for compliance? Because they can
and because they have architected their solutions that way. Yet, no
Identity Management solution is complete without compliance: it should
not be a separate feature, product or functionality and should not be
licensed, architected or developed separately. Next-generation Identity
Management solutions incorporate compliance throughout the
architecture.
Choose a vendor that can provide robust yet simple
compliance across all business processes and the systems that comprise
them. Vendors that offer separate compliance “modules” or products are
not only charging too much money, they are not optimizing
organizational compliance capabilities.
Separate products likely require integration, redundant
administration, redundant points of data entry, and scripting or
coding, i.e., compliance with a catch. A next-generation solution
requires no integration, no scripting or programming and provides a
centralized identity-related audit capability throughout your
enterprise. Spend less, get more of what you need…always a best
practice.
Focus Identity Management Compliance Efforts on Business EventsImplementing
IdM changes and auditing through scheduled processes and uncoordinated
audit logs typically leaves compliance gaps, creates weak links in your
critical processes, and results in poor auditability of your IdM
infrastructure.
Focusing on business events and real-time auditing yields far
more value, lower TCO and improved end-to-end compliance. This approach
also promotes consistent policy application and enforcement throughout
business processes by ensuring that IT privileges are consistent with
business responsibilities and by providing coordinated, real-time
reporting.
Automate Anything That Moves and Simplify the Rest
The largest cost of compliance is labor, whether related to
implementation, documentation, audit, or reporting. According to
Gartner, organizations typically spend 5%-10% of their IT budgets on
compliance activities, and organizations that don’t automate are
expected to spend 50% more by 2008.
Verifying identity-related controls is highly manual, and
can range from comparing actual permissions for each resource with the
business policies that dictate what each person should be able to
access, to discovering orphan accounts.
These and other audit tasks can and should be automated. For
example, identifying "who could access what / when," "who approved
access to what / when," exceptions between business rules and user
accounts, and over-privileged accounts could easily be automated with
an Identity Management solution. Automation will become a driving force
in the Identity Management landscape, simply because most organizations
can’t sustain the level of activity and cost that was required over the
last year.
The Best Practice here is largely good judgment and thorough
research to choose a next-generation, "architected" suite rather than
an "integrated" suite that is not as complete or as efficient.
For example, the solution should enable centralized auditing
that actually captures and reports all events. Separation of Duties
must be automated to assure that nothing slips through the cracks as
the business and workforce change.
Automated alerts or even automated rollback of excess
permissions and the elimination of orphan accounts are required to
enable rapid remediation. The solution should also not require any
programming or scripting since business policies and compliance rules
are inherently more time consuming to implement and change through
scripting than through graphical interfaces. The ability to reuse
components, such as through Service Oriented Architecture improves
quality while reducing costs and effort.
Begin Your IdM Deployment With A Compliant Identity Store
A best-practice "load mode" process ensures that all data written to
the identity store adheres to the compliance and business policies for
your organization, before going live. This process pulls data from
sources of authority, matches accounts to users, and matches
permissions with policies before any data is written to the data store.
The process further improves and simplifies ongoing identity management
activities by producing a compliant data store on day one to
immediately enable automated compliance and exception reporting
activities.
Deploy "Continuous Compliance"
Every enterprise is dynamic and needs to detect identity-related
changes to resources, whether inside or outside the IdM infrastructure,
then document (prove) that their changes were appropriate.
Continuous compliance is the automated process of managing
identities and authorizations based on business policies, business
rules, business roles, internal controls, etc. It enables organizations
to detect compliance anomalies and remediate them on an ongoing basis
instead of taking only periodic snapshots.
This degree of automation and "good housekeeping" is looked
favorably upon by auditors, and can minimize their time to test and
validate controls.
Your ability to deploy continuous compliance
cost-effectively is driven by your IdM solution, as it will need to
quickly integrate with virtually any system, and be able to enforce
internal controls in real-time based on business policies and system
events. This is contingent on:
• a centralized audit database where all identity events are
recorded as they happen, are co-located, and are immediately
accessible.
• the ability to quickly pinpoint exceptions and discrepancies based on
a complete identity event data set.
• rapid / cohesive reporting of all events, rather than a
piecemeal approach where report data from disparate systems needs to be
consolidated before it can be understood.
Make your vendor Prove It!
Especially when it comes to compliance, be certain that the vendor
performs to your exact list of expectations, before you buy. Be sure
you understand what they actually provide, what it will take to
implement, how much it will cost, and what happens when you need to
make unforeseen changes. Here are some items you’ll want to verify with
your vendor:
• Are all identity-related events recorded and can some be purposely
ignored if they’re not needed?
• Are all identity events written to the same database, or are
they pulled from disparate databases and combined after the fact?
• Does it enforce separation of duties and provide exception
reports, or do the auditors need to wade through screens of data to
verify SOD?
• Can it identify and correct orphan accounts and over-privileged
accounts?
• What reports do they produce? What level of effort is
required to get what you really need and again, what happens when
business requirements change?
• How much extra work will the auditors need to do to verify
that the system actually does what it’s supposed to? With script-based
systems, that will take additional effort.
• Do their graphical workflow tools truly "eliminate"
programming, or simply cursory operations? This is important for total
cost and time involved to implement and for business and compliance
changes down the road.
• Will your people need to learn separate user interfaces for
core IdM functions (e.g., provisioning, password management, auditing,
etc.)?
Compliance doesn't have to be expensive and disruptive. In
fact, implementing a continuous compliance process with a
next-generation IdM suite can be easily accomplished, provided that
compliance has been designed into the suite as an architectural
element, not merely as an add-on module.
These IdM solutions are the key to leveraging
compliance-related benefits including improved efficiency, secure
confidential information, and integrity of financial information.
25.
The RFID implant or subcutaneous microchip by Gaétan - SPCM
Org -
Jan 4, 2006
Source
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Hello
2005. As you know , following a European directive, the compulsory attribution of ID’swith electronic chip is already planned in our countries. In the long run, shall be introducead everywhere in the world. Likewise, passports will contain, at the USA’s request, an electronic "microprocessor" allowing, among other things, the integration of biometric data.
These changes, which might be far less insignificant than the seam to be , are in this way being introduced into our every day life without any consultation of the people.
Meanwhile, throughout the world, electronic supervision is proposed or imposed in some way or other. Announcements are made saying that the use of global human tracking systems will be a worldwide phenomenon and will change the lives of all of us... All this is being presented as advantageous, but...
Is it really for our own good ?
We have no guarantee that private life protection shall be secured in the long run, nor that certain basic human rights shall still be respected. Everything could be accessible and out of our control : data concerning our whereabouts, our financial, juridical, medical situation , etc..
Another big argument used in favor of chip ID cards, biometric passports, and various other measures is our « precious security » ! But such a super recording of information could just as well come to help the job of repression forces, which will generate another type of insecurity ! History has shown that the terrorist is always « the other » untill you wake up being yourself the « presumed terrorist » ...
A very strong media coverage of some facts reinforces artificially the feeling of insecurity, without pointing out that a secure society is not that in which individuals are heavily controlled by sophisticated means, but rather a fair and righteous society managed for the good and happiness of all and not for the profit of a minority.
But the worst is yet to come !
In January 2004, information made us think that this chipID card may well be only a step towards physical information recording systems by means of an under the skin implanted microchip . Since then, everything is going faster and faster in this direction with the more and more frequent - if not yet compulsory - use of RFID (Radio Frequency) tags or bracelets. The under the skin transplanted chip becomes itself becoming a sort of game or a medical gadget presented as being essential.
Barcodes are going to be replaced by these RFID chips. That makes a swiftly growing market with billions of dollars at stake...
We have already noticed by ourselves that :
we
are progressively led to adopt barcodes and electronic chips on our
cards or under our pets’ skin. - High-performance tracking satellite
systems are already in common use (GPS).
Economy
rules most of the world and globalization ensures the hegemony of
multinationals whose power is often bigger than that of some countries.
And important international organizations (WTO, IMF, OECD World
Bank...) count more and more in the world wide decision making process
(see GATS). - As for the Media (most of them in the hands of these
institutions), their impact and power on the people are enormous, which
leaves the door open to all types of manipulation...
Meanwhile we have many examples of the big and alarming strides that new technologies are making, such as :
The
FDA supports the use of an under the skin chip in USA hospitals and all
the propaganda that goes with it. - Satellite tracking of recidivist
offenders in the United Kingdom. - The transplanting of an under the
skin chip offered by the "Baja Beach Club", a night club of Barcelona,
to its « good customers ». The Baja Beach Club is
part of a network.
The same offer occurs in other places. - A compulsory electronic ankle
bracelet for the recidivist alcoholics in several states of the USA. -
The setting up, in several countries, of private societies offering a
tracking system through a cell-phone. - The electronic payment
phenomenon...the announcement of invisible nano-chips. - The "Very kid"
program in Mexico for implanting chips in kids
http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,1282,60771,00.html
Europe
considers law making on the use of under the skin transplants or even
brain transplants. (Does Europe consider supporting the use ? ) A
stupefying propaganda is taking place.
INQUIRE ABOUT THIS : IT’S URGENT !!! Have a look at this video :
http://www.prisonplanet.com/articles/february2005/250205undertheskin.htm
All this is being presented as a necessary progress that we cannot stop . We do not agree. We don’t see any "progress", but a whole series of increasing dependencies and intolerable strangleholds on our lives, which could eventually bring us to regret being born in this world. We don’t see anywhere in these measures the search for the true causes and the adequate remedies of our current problems.
Insidiously, those means might become legally compulsory... but even if they are not - or at least not for everyone -, we have to beware of what is happening to us : there are factual obligations or social pressures that are equivalent to legal obligations, if we don’t want to be cast out of society. What about it, if, tomorrow, our children can’t get a decent job anymore without an electronic chip being transplanted in their bodies ?
Let’s help one another to think about it. Let’s learn not to surrender to the gilded pill of facility-rapidity-efficiency-security ... that would quickly make us unable to do without these means, so that we shall find ourselves trapped in a "cage".
Do you want to know more about it ?
http://www.salvation-of-humans.com/English/02-05_absolute_badness.htm
We must quickly obtain the right to the absolute refusal of all compulsory introduction in the human body of products, or devices, whatever they are, that contain electronic or nano (bio)technologic components.
The RFID implant or subcutaneous microchip, is maybe only a first part of the plan of the Beast.
I believe there’s a second part of the plan of the Beast, a way to create a psychosis of the implant to allow the Antichrist to arrive in saviour.
The possible second part of the plan of the Beast ;
Since good number of people, in the world, expects the apparition of an Antichrist, the Beast could bring the emergence of a madman’s , a warrior or a dictator, who would provoke a war and would be seen as the Antichrist expected, but that man would not be the Antichrist. And the use or the imposition of the subcutaneous RFID implant would be nearly everywhere on earth, so a big concern would spill at people that waited for these events with apprehension.
Then, after a bigger apostasy in the world, another man, who would be the real Antichrist, would emerge to bring the peace and would begin by defeating and to withdraw the mad warrior that all believed to be the Antichrist. Then he would have the subcutaneous RFID implant of all the countries withdrawn, while saying that he wants to free the world of this horror, but he would replace this implant by his own mark that would be on the skin and technologically well more discreet and probably of religious aspect, and those that would already have the subcutaneous RFID implant would be captive and could not refuse the new mark.
The RFID implant will precede a new mark not implanted under the skin, because the Antichrist needs a fear climate to succeed, he need that the people are all mingled with all these events and that the implant is frightening, therefore the Antichrist arrives in saviour and makes remove the subcutaneous RFID implant, but it would propose a mark that would be very different in appearance, maybe a new technology that would not need to be implanted, to give the impression to the populations that they are not marked but that they carry a simple sign of recognition, on the forehead or the hand, to show their allegiance to the man that they will believe to be the saviour. But anyway, nor the implant or a different mark is acceptable, and both will serve to control the population like a herd.
Thus, once the implant will be removed and replaced by a mark on the skin and a more reassuring system, people would believe to be on a time of peace and in the millennium and would follow the Antichrist, believing he is the saviour of the world.
What can we do ?
To avoid taking the mark will be to make exchange of good and services between those that won’t want to be in the world system and the Antichrist’s religion. A its abolition the currency of paper could be to keep and not to be put back to banks, so it would be a currencies in a parallel economic system. You will also leave cities and gather in small community.
Lot of things can made , like hidden camps of information (to counter the government disinformation), and also for withdrawal of the implant, hackers to jam or stop the computer system of the world government, scientists to counter the technology used for the people’s control, etc.. but we have to avoid any violence because that would be use by the government to label us as terrorist.
° Favor with creativity an information flow and an ethical reflection for as many people as possible : youth, teaching personnel, medical personnel, elected officials... Our future and that of our children are at stake.° Show our disapproval of the compulsory adoption of the chip ID cards and our anticipated refusal of any legally or socially compulsory implantation of under skin chips.
Create citizen associations. If you want to join other associations you can get in touch with :
English speaking : Manystopchip@hotmail.com France : jameh@skynet.be (http://www.jameh.org/) Belgium : contact@stoppuce.be http://www.stoppuce.be/) Spanish speaking : Chiyesa@yahoo.es Canada : marialerouxi@videotron.ca Switzerland : contact@implanter.org (http://www.implanter.org) African french speaking : njieo@hotmail.com
Biography ; This article are in part from my own personnal texts and other part from open public texts from www.implanter.org
Gaétan
http://www.geocities.com/gaetan8888
26. Press Release - Passfaces Corporation Releases Technical White Paper Entitled The Science Behind Passfaces(TM) Authored by Paul Barrett Recognized Authority on Authentication and Cognometrics - Jan 4, 2006
Source Next[END] Contents
ANNAPOLIS, Md.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jan. 4, 2006--Passfaces Corporation today released a technical white paper discussing the scientific research behind their innovative authentication technology which has been designed to provide an additional layer of security for online services. The paper is authored by Paul Barrett, CEO of Passfaces and recognized thought leader in the fields of authentication and cognometrics. This educational paper can be downloaded at http://www.passfaces.com/resources/white%20papers.htm
Significant research has been conducted regarding the human brain's remarkable ability to recognize familiar faces. The purpose of much of this research has been to create electronic systems that emulate the brain for use in biometric security applications. Like many functions of the brain the process is more complex than one might first think. It turns out that the brain treats faces differently than it does other shapes and objects. A part of the human brain has evolved specifically for the purpose of remembering and recognizing faces. It is this fact that underlies the core technology of Passfaces.
"Passwords have long been accepted as the weakest link in online security. However, traditional so-called 'strong' authentication technologies that were developed over twenty years ago, such as tokens and biometrics, cannot provide a practical solution for the hundreds of millions of users online today. And most software-based password alternatives suffer from poor reliability and usability," said Barrett. "Our research into cognometrics has shown that if we tap into one of the unique processes of the brain, we can deliver technology that both works and is intuitive to use." He adds, "The brain has evolved special components to handle tasks that may have been crucial to survival at one point in time. One of these is the ability to recognize familiar faces - a powerful and completely intuitive skill that is independent of age, language or education. Rather than trying to recreate this complex function of the human brain, Passfaces takes advantage of it by using a set of faces, rather than numbers or letters, as a secret authentication code. Think of Passfaces as kind of a reverse biometric - a 'mindprint' rather than a fingerprint," concludes Barrett. Try the demo at www.passfaces.com
About Passfaces Corporation
Passfaces, formerly Real User Corporation, is an information security technology company based in Annapolis, Maryland. The Company was founded in 2000 to commercialize an innovative, patented strong authentication technology that leverages the brain's innate cognitive ability to recognize human faces. Our Passfaces(TM) products offer business, financial services, government and OEM customers a cost effective, fully scalable and highly reliable strong authentication solution that supports business risk management objectives and is both liked and trusted by users. For additional information see: www.passfaces.com.
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