Stick it in your ear

The tubular crest that runs over the top of your ear is known as the helix. It's quite distinctive, even if it doesn't posses the pointy bit that proves you're descended from a monkey (lookup Darwin's tubercle), or a Vulcan. Best of all, it doesn't change as you age, unlike the iris, which along with the face are the most popular means by which machines recognize humans.

The problem is, getting a computer to find and recognize the ear. Fortunately, researchers in the School of Electronics and Computer Science of the University of Southampton have come up with a means for identifying ears with a success rate of 99.6%

 

Iran admits its nuclear facilities are under massive cyberattack

A few months ago I commented on the need to integrate security for the home as the country moves towards a smartgrid. Iran is feeling the pressure of a cyber attack directed at its nuclear program. It would not take a leap of thought for something of this magnitude to hit either the US Grid itself, or individual homes

Iran has confirmed that 30,000 computers in the country's power stations, including the nuclear reactor in Bushehr, have been attacked by the Stuxnet worm; the Stuxnet worm is described by experts as the most complex piece of malware ever designed; once Stuxnet gains access to a plant's computers, it hunts out specific software that controls operations such as the opening and closing of valves or temperature regulation; by halting those processes it can cause extensive damage to nuclear power stations, power grids or other industrial facilities; the high number of infections in Iran have led experts to conclude that the worm may have been designed in the United States or Israel to disable Iran's controversial nuclear facilities

http://homelandsecuritynewswire.com/iran-admits-its-nuclear-facilities-are-under-massive-cyberattack

For more information on the SmartGrid you can check out the NIST Smart Grid Report: http://www.nist.gov/smartgrid/

A little more about Apple's patents for biometrics

Apple is seeking new patents for technologies that may use advanced biometrics to protect i-devices (iphone and ipad for now). Biometrics to protect laptops and phones isn’t brand new: many models use fingerprint and voice print security, and some even venture into facial or iris scanning and recognition . Apple’s future system will go steps further than that by combining several 'soft' biometrics. Essentially, if implemented on a device, the technology could use stored information about not only the authorized user’s voice print, face and fingerprints, but also usage patterns (using keystroke modalities for example) and even heartbeat. Should the system suspect that the user is not the phone’s owner, in the case of theft, the device could lock out the thief and send an e-mail with the phone’s location and the thief’s photo to the authorized user. It could also inform the owner (and credit card companies and banks) of all activity conducted on the phone by the thief via call logs and keystroke information. Finally, to prevent the thief from using any information stored on the device for nefarious purposes, the system could save data on the phone to a remote location and then wipe the device clean, rendering it secure from data theft.

http://www.tmcnet.com/biomag/articles/96251-apple-filing-james-bond-style-biometricsecurity- applications.htm

Apple patent purchase points to possible biometric functionality

A new patent purchased by technology company Apple from three engineers in Oregon may point to a possibility of biometric capabilities in future devices from the company, according to a Macgasm article. The patent deals with utilizing fingerprint sensors embedded into flat-panel displays for authenticating identity. Such technology could lead to sensors being placed underneath the touch-screens that have become staples of Apples most prevalent devices.


There is a documented need to make collection devices simpler and less expensive while being lightweight and field ready. Many federal defense and law enforcement agencies have similar documented portable collection device requirements with slightly nuanced differences for various operational environments.  Additionally, the high training costs for current field equipment, as documented by US Customs and Border Protection, represent a significant hurdle for fielding devices effectively. It would be preferable if a ubiquitous device, already familiar to government agents, was leveraged to cut down on equipment and training costs.


Of course this leads to leveraging the iPhone as a collection device for fingerprints, through its flat screen, as well as face and iris, through the camera. In 2009, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) published guidance and operational requirements for Mobile ID devices that can be used for enrollment, identification and verification functions.  NIST also developed a prototype software interface application for the iPhone demonstrating how biometric services could be achieved.


With luck having Apple becoming involved with biometric collection will lead to a host of intuitive and easy to use equipment being fielded.


For more information please follow the link:http://www.thirdfactor.com/2010/08/12/apple-patent-purchase-points-to-possible-biometricfunctionality

Biometrics and Cloud computing

Booz Allen has done an expose of my work so far in leveraging cloud computing for biometrics databases. Try this link

or cut and past the below address

http://docs.google.com/fileview?id=0B1WbvgQfrYzaNzQxYTg2ZWUtY2I5ZS00NjBjLTkzYzAtNGYwNmI0ZGVkMjUy&hl=en

Presentation at West Virginia University

On April 12th I had the great pleasure of presenting to the Lane Department of Computer Science and Electrical Engineering (LCSEE) at West Virginia University (WVU).

Our discussion topic was the use of biometric systems by the federal government.

An excerpt of my presentation is hosted by Google Documents here PRESENTATION

Comments on the article "The right way to mend immigration"

My comments on the article "The right way to mend immigration" by Senators Charles E. Schumer and Lindsey O. Graham
Friday, March 19, 2010
You can read the article here:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/03/17/AR2010031703115.html?hpid=opinionsbox1

Biometrically the crux of the article focuses on the following paragraph "We would require all U.S. citizens and legal immigrants who want jobs to obtain a high-tech, fraud-proof Social Security card. Each card's unique biometric identifier would be stored only on the card; no government database would house everyone's information. The cards would not contain any private information, medical information or tracking devices. The card would be a high-tech version of the Social Security card that citizens already have. "

Upgrading the Social Security card is a wonderful idea. Too many illegal immigrants use existing numbers to falsify their identity and mask as legitimate workers. While public opinion may be out on the immigrant trying to earn a living (albeit being in the country illegally) the true owner of the Social Security number can be penalized by having their identity compromised, needing to pay taxes on behalf of the other worker, not to mention having utilities, credit cards, and other services opened to a false identity. This form of identity theft can be quite damaging to the victim.

I applaud the efforts recognizing that it is too easy to learn the 8 digit code, a social security number, that unlocks a world of services within the United States.

The Senators are not aware of the conditions of establishing a unique biometric identifier. It needs to be collected, enrolled, validated and generated somewhere: i.e. a database. Not allowing the government to store in a secure database would cause the necessary information to be kept on commercial enterprises which are going to be less secure. Authenticating only to the card would trigger a great production of counterfeit cards that would send back a positive match; which would certainly raise the bar for fraudulent documents but not eliminate it.

Most importantly the Senators seems to overlook an important fact: If we suspect that 11 million immigrants are already in this country working illegally (let’s assume all of them have jobs) we are still talking about less than 3% of the working population. Burdening 97% may be too much for the public to bear.

Personally I favor national biometric identity cards; but let's plan for that being what it is and what it could do in terms of replacing many of the existing state and federal breeder documents such as Social Security Cards, Driver's Licenses, Sheriff's IDs, and a host of others. Creating something that would enable more services, rather than restrict for a few, is the right way to go and gain public acceptance. Dare I say, even enthusiasm.