• Mounties smash massive identity-theft ring

    Royal Canadian Mounted Police discover thousands of stolen and forged credit cards, licences, passports, personal records — and printing and embossing machines to manufacture IDs, passports, and print forged money; largest such ring in Canadian history

  • Company looks for ways to expedite airport security

    Bay Area airports will be using Clear — a security screening system which passengers can subscribe to for about $100 per year; the creator of Clear launched a contest, offering a $500,000 prize for new technology which gets its customers through security lines 15 percent faster at a cost of less than 25 cents per passenger

  • EU moves toward biometric border checks

    There are 300 million crossings per year at EU member states’ border crossings — 160 million crossings by EU citizens, 60 million by non-EU without visa, 80 million by non-EU with visa; EU wants to introduce biometric IDs to know who is coming in

  • Congress wants tighter look at passengers claiming to be policemen

    Currently, all one has to do at an airport to prove he or she is a law enforcement officer — and, thus, entitled to bring a weapon on board — is show a photo ID and a letter from the law enforcement agency employing them; both documents can be easily forged

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  • Getting one's name off no-fly watch list a major hassle

    The U.S. lists 28 organizations as terrorist organizations; their total membership is estimated to be around 180,000 (of about 120,000 are members of the recently added Iranian Revolutionary Guard); yet, the U.S. terrorism no-fly watch list now contains more than 700,000 names — and it is growing by thousands every month; if your name got on the list by mistake, it is not easy to have it removed

  • RFID technology ever more pervasive, pt. I

    RFID tags are everywhere — on boxed goods, in some computer printers, car keys and tires, on shampoo bottles and department store clothing tags; they are also in library books, contactless payment cards, passports, and travel documents; they introduce efficiency and security to the supply chain, but also allow companies and organizations to track the behavior and shopping patterns of individuals

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  • Scottish Tories launch campaign against "ineffective" ID cards

    Scottish Tories launch new criticism of the U.K. government for a national biometric ID; “Despite what Gordon Brown and the Labour government says, ID cards won’t stop terrorist attacks and won’t prevent identity fraud,” leader says.

  • Airport screeners use black lights to inspect ID cards

    TSA screeners at about 400 U.S. airports have began checking IDs with hand-held black lights; black lights help screeners inspect ID cards by illuminating holograms, typically of government seals, which are found in licenses and passports

  • Unisys awarded CBP $62 million RFID reader contract

    This year, various forms of U.S. IDs will be equipped with vicinity RFID technology; DHS selects Unisys to install RFID readers at the 39 busiest U.S. land border ports of entry

  • Atlanta's Hartsfield second in U.S. to collect ten fingerprints

    DHS begins collecting ten fingerprints from international visitors at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport; Washington Dulles airport began doing so in late November; eight additional U.S. airports to implement ten-fingerprint requirement in 2008

  • General Dynamics wins $100 million passport card contract

    The Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative (WHTI) will allow U.S. residents to travel by land and sea to Canada, Mexico, the Caribbean, and Bermuda using a passport card rather than a traditional passport (travel by air, and travel to other countries, would still require a passport); General Dynamics wins contract to produce the cards

  • Precise Biometric lands another national ID deal

    Swedish biometric specialist won yet another tender to supply technology for a national ID card scheme; order comprises licenses for Precise Match-on-Card technology and delivery will start during the first half of this year

  • Biometric technology helps microfinancing in Asia

    Banks in Indonesia and India have emerged as the frontrunners in deploying advanced technologies to grow their microfinance businesses; biometric technology is particularly useful in areas with low literacy rates, as customers no longer have to rely upon signatures or filling out documents

  • Gordon Brown on national biometric IDs

    The debate in the U.K. over the wisdom and effectiveness of a national biometric ID rages on, and Prime Minister Gordon Brown weighs in; he says: “We shouldn’t rule out a way to protect people’s identities”

  • U.S. to begin offering RFID-equipped passport cards

    Passport card will serve as an alternative to the traditional passport — and reduce the wait at land and sea border checkpoints by using an electronic device that can simultaneously read multiple cards’ radio frequency identification (RFID) signals from a distance, checking travelers against terrorist and criminal watchlists while they wait