The emergence of global biometrics standards

Plans for a national identity card and more stringent international border controls mean that efforts to introduce a global standard for biometrics technology are being stepped up, visitors to IFSEC 2003 heard in May.

A UK national identity card and the continuing ripple effects of the 9/11 terrorist attacks were discussed during the IFSEC conference. Bob Carter of De La Rue described international efforts to create a worldwide biometrics standard in advance of a specific US deadline for implementing this identification technology.

"9/11 changed the world forever, and will soon affect all travellers," he told delegates.

By 26 October 2004, domestic American legislation means all countries within the US visa waiver programme (including the UK), must have procedures in place to enable issue of all new passports containing biometric data for reading at border control points such as airports. But this strengthening of US homeland security in the wake of the September 11th 2001 attacks is only one move involving the wider use of biometrics.

Carter, as chairman of the British Standards Institute committee IST 44, which "shadows" the work of International Standards Organisation committee SC37, revealed that current efforts towards creation of a global biometrics standard are advanced. It is hoped that a draft standard could be introduced as early as next spring. Work is continuing on aspects such as "standardisation of generic biometric technologies pertaining to human beings to support interoperability and data interchange among applications and systems."

This work includes the likely practical use of finger minutiae, finger patterns, finger images, face recognition and iris recognition - the latter is already in use at Heathrow and Schiphol airports to speed up the movement of frequent flyers, regarded as 'low risk' passengers by immigration authorities.

Gerry Gardner, immediate past chairman of the Association for Biometrics, a 50-member strong collaboration of users, suppliers, researchers, integrators, consultants and government agencies, chaired the IFSEC conference session. Other speakers introduced by him included Philip Statham, who examined the UK government's approach to biometric security assurance. He reminded the audience of a core point - what is biometrics? The answer, he said, was: "The automated means of identifying or verifying the identity of a living person through the measurement of distinguishing physiological or behavioural traits."

Professor Mike Fairhurst, of Kent University, followed Statham with his paper on educating the public. Opinions on biometrics polarise at both ends of the spectrum, he said. The key to solving this lies partly in the level of knowledge among the general public, as a path towards increased practical usage of biometric-based security systems, in conjunction with other measures such as improved training for shop staff in signature recognition techniques.

Feature article by Ian Drury