16 October 2007

A vain attempt at security

| Joe Canberran
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iTnews is reporting that IT services company, Unisys, located at the Uni of Canberra, in partnership with the Department of Immigration and Citizenship (DIAC) and the University, have opened a new ‘Security Innovation Centre’ with the intention “to embrace technology that addresses peoples’ concerns about creating greater safety”.

Of the numerous biometric technologies being demonstrated at the centre it was the “Registered Traveller System – a technology which captures a person’s two irises, all 10 fingerprints and takes an image of the individual’s face – currently used in a number of United States airports” that caught my attention. So much for cutting of someone’s head or hand to get past those pesky security systems in those sci-fi films. Likewise I’d guess that the “vascular recognition vein capturing technology” would only be able to find a match if there was still fluid pumping through said system.

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Joe Canberran7:40 pm 16 Oct 07

Caf: That is was but the (now fixed) typo in attempt was just a stuff up.

VYBerlinaV8...the_original_and_best10:23 am 16 Oct 07

There are examples in the past of severed fingers being used for fingerprint recognition. This no longer works on most modern fingerprint recognition systems.

Sammy: I believe the original spelling “vein” was a pun on the use of “vascular recognition vein capturing technology”.

Danman_straight6_EB_Falcodore10:15 am 16 Oct 07

Compound bow – SWB 4WD and Brindabellas is my escape plan.

hairy nosed wombat9:59 am 16 Oct 07

I now know where to go to, if the zombies attack.

if there was still fluid pumping through said system

Last time I checked, dead bodies didn’t pose much of a security threat. Unless they’re carrying an infectious disease, in which case the identity of the cadaver would be the smallest of concerns.

Or perhaps a vain attempt at spelling ‘atempt’.

I always find that when criticising others shortcomings, it’s usually a good idea to obscure your own.

VYBerlinaV8...the_original_and_best9:28 am 16 Oct 07

This sort of approach gives a false sense of security. The vast majority of true security breaches in this space come from screw-ups in managing the basics (eg not managing access control on the underlying systems that host the application layer), or from people who come up with a smart scenario that wasn’t considered at design time. Having lots of biometrics or strong encryption won’t help a damn in these cases.

So by ‘creating greater safety’ they aren’t talking about pure grip car tyres, a motorbike that never falls over, police sensitive gun disarmers or knife blunters?

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