Security > BiometricsEssentials

A biometrics "jumpkit" is helping American soldiers in Iraq to identify dangerous persons by immediately comparing detainees' fingerprints against an Army database in the United States, using a satellite link for speedy analysis.

The biometric data of each person entering Australia could be permanently stored in a central repository for identity verification and cross-checking between federal government departments, national and international anti-identity fraud efforts, and border control systems.

Fingerprints? How about the veins in your hand?

U.K. security integrator Torotech has begun offering a new take on securing online transactions such as banking access: a digital fingerprinting system that uses the uniqueness of a piece of user hardware as an authentication token.

Manchester Airport has started testing facial recognition at border control as part of the UK £1.2 billion (US$2.4 billion) e-Borders scheme to tighten controls.

Within weeks after its introduction , a security researcher has cracked the Tip2Pay fingerprint payment system for Dutch supermarket chain Albert Heijn. The researcher succeeded at paying for groceries by using a copied fingerprint.

Australia's biggest banks and the NSW Roads and Traffic Authority joined the NSW Council of Civil Liberties to slam the biometrics industry for sidelining privacy concerns in a regulatory environment that can only be described as "weak and unethical."

The Department of Labour's planned "Single Client View" redevelopment of its immigration ICT system will collect biometric data from immigrants and integrate with other government identity management projects, according to a proposal for a privacy impact assessment.