The Technology Liberation Front – An Interesting Website

Here is an interesting website called The Technology Liberation Front, which has as its catch phrase, “The real problem is not whether machines think but whether men do.” The short commentary entitled ”Welcome to the United States, Criminal Suspect!” discussing the 2 to 10 fingerprint scan foreign visitors to the U.S. should now expect upon entering or leaving the country first drew us to the site, but further investigation revealed many articles worth a perusal. 

Lost Disc Fiasco Could Scupper ID Card Scheme in the UK

At least something good might come out of the gross loss of personal data in the British child benefits information leakage. The incident, which entailed the loss of personal information for some 25 million people across the U.K., has brought about a reassessment of plans for a new, high-tech national identity document. Although a seemingly small silver lining in a very dark cloud, the child benefits incident (and resultant reassessment) could ward off an even larger storm. 

Leaders of many countries have been all too quick to look upon technology as the ultimate security solution. Unfortunately, technology, as good as it is, can only ever offer humans assistance in answering our problems.  No matter what the technology used, human beings will still be involved in the installation and maintenance of any system, resulting in the same gaping security holes existing today. Furthermore, the misplaced dependency on technology to fix human problems only leaves the many human issues that breed insecurity completely ignored and unsolved.

The use of biometrics in national identity documents has never been a good idea, something on which we at International Perspectives have commented widely. That is not to say that biometric technologies are not a useful tool, indeed, in access control management it provides a good degree of security and ex post facto review on security breaches and as an identification tool for police, biometrics are invaluable. The optimum word here, though, is tool, not solution.

National Security, and indeed most other types of security, will only ever be increased with a fundamental shift in perspective as to how security is approached. Increasing focus on the human factor and what drives people to behave in certain ways must absolutely be addressed if security is to be improved.

Relying upon technology to solve those problems will only breed more problems. The lost disc fiasco in the UK should stand as a testament to what further complications can arise from depending on technology to increase security. Consider what the state of security will be when the same humans maintaining a large centralized identity database loose biometric information among other details of yet another 25 million people. 

British MP’s pass immigration Bill

The Sun has reported that:

“The UK Borders Bill will introduce compulsory biometric ID cards for non-EU nationals and gives greater powers to immigration officers.

Measures in the Bill will tackle fraud in the benefits system and lead to the automatic deportation of some foreign prisoners at the end of their sentences.

The Commons agreed to amendments passed by the Lords and the Bill will now become law once it receives Royal Assent.

The moves are part of reforms which saw the Immigration and Nationality Directorate become the Border and Immigration Agency earlier this year.

They also complement a raft of changes announced last year, including doubling the immigration enforcement budget to £200million and electronic checks on everyone entering and leaving the UK by 2014.”

As we have reported before, using biometrics on large scale identity document schemes doesn’t really increase security, if anything, it would probably decrease it. Managing millions of people with numbers increasing every year with remote check points would be an ICT nightmare. Of course, the proposal put forth by the British in this example appears to be limited to immigrants for the end-purpose of deportation, so maybe the numbers will be more finite. George Orwell must feel like a real visionary now!

Biometric Sensors No Dirtier Than Doorknobs, Study Finds

Science Daily has reported that “a Purdue University study has found that while the platen glass surfaces of devices that scan fingerprints or hand geometry may look more unsanitary due to visible dirt and prints, they in fact harbor about the same amount of bacteria as a typical doorknob.”

While there are shortcomings with some applications of biometrics, fear over germs should not be considered one of them. Hopefully the Purdue University study will help convince those preoccupied with germs that the spread of disease should be the least of their concerns regarding the use biometrics in security measures.

New Security Steps: What’s It “Cost” To Be Safe?

Margaret Brennan has published an interesting article covering the costs associated with and implications of the “controversial Transportation Workers Identity Card (TWIC) program.” It’s definitely worth a read.