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Quick links on this page:

  • Article on Securics in Colorado Springs Gazette.
  • Interview of Dr. Boult on KOAA TV on biometrics and spoofing fingerprints (5M Mpeg4 Avi file)
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    Presentations on technology behind Securics

    Learn more about the technology behind Securics at the following International Conferences/Workshops:
    Date Location Event Topic being presented
    Feb 11 2008 Washington DC Biometrics For National Security and Defense, Master class series2 Hours Tutorial on Security, Privacy and Long Range Face Recognition
    March 18 2008 Tampa, FL SPIE Defense and Security, Biometrics Technology for Human IdentificationFAAD: Face At A distance

    Past presentations:

    Date Location Event Topic being presented
    November 28-30, 2007 Westin Washington DC City Center Avanced Identification Systems/Commercial Biometrics 2007 Toward commercial recovable biometric-based identiy.
    Oct 18 2007 Rio Rio de Janeiro, Brazil IEEE International Confernce on Computer Vision> Finger Biotope(tm) demonstration
    Oct 2 2007 Colorado Springs 2007 Homeland Defense/Homeland Security Symposium Finger Biotope(tm) demonstration (CSTI Booth 312)
    Sept 11-23 2007 Baltimore, MD The Biometric Consirtium Conference (BCC) Cracking the Fuzzy Value (Oral paper in research session)
    Sept 11-23 2007 Baltimore, MD The 2008 Biometric Tech. Expo (with the BCC) Demostrations of Finger Biotopes, Securics/UCCS Booth 213.
    June 19-21 2007 Minn. MN IEEE Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition Finger Biotope(tm), Overview and Security Analysis
    Nov 9 2006 Colorado Springs, CO RMTA Technology Leadership Forum Securics' Biometric Technologies
    Nov 6 2006 Ft. Collins, CO Colorado State University Colloquium Improving Biometrics Privacy, Security and Accuracy
    Oct 21 2006 Annapolis MD Chesapeake Innovation Center Securics Biometric Technologies
    Oct 11 2006 Boulder CO University of Colorado at Boulder Improving Biometrics Privacy, Security and Accuracy
    June 22 2006 NYC, NY IEEE Workshop on Privacy Research in Vision PK Cryptographic With Vision: Surveillance and Biometrics (And workshop organizer)
    March 15-16 2006 Boston SBIR to VC event Securics Biometric Technologies
    April 10-12 2006 Southampton UK Automated Face and Gesture Recognition Robust distance transforms and revocable face-based biometrics.
    March 8-9 2006 NIST, Gaitherberg MD NIST Quality Workshop Beyond Image Quality: Predicting Biometric System Failure.
    Feb 8 12pm-1:30pm EST 2006 ASIS Virtual Forum ASIS Virtual Forum Revocable Biometric Identification: Enhancing security and privacy.
    Sept 14 2005 Orlando ASIS International Seminars and Exhibits Revocable Biometric Identification: Enhancing security and privacy.
    Sept 19 2005 Washington DC The Biometrics Consortium Conference Projective-invariant Hand Geometry and Ultra-wide field of view face-based recognition
    July 20 2005 (at meeting July 20-22) Rye New York IAPR's Audio- and Video-based Biometric Person Authentication 2005 Classification Enhancement via Biometric Pattern Perturbation
    June 15 2005 (at meeting 6/15-6/16) Colorado Springs Fourth Annual Federal Information Security Conference Privacy issues and solutions with Biometrics
    May 5 2005 Las Vegas ASIS Emerging Trends in Security Revocable Biometric Identification: Enhancing security and privacy.
    March 29/30 2005 Orlando IEEE Conference on Computational Intelligence for Homeland Security and Personal Safety Predicting biometric system failure.

     

     

    Theft/Loss of "private data" data

    A key issue in the privacy space, which also impacts security, is what "mistakes" happens to release data. When revocable data (credit cards numbers, SSN, etc) are lost these issues are problematic but solvable. But even scarier than the general "invasion of privacy" issue of biometric data (e.g. genetic traits, etc) are the larger implications if the records include biometric data (e.g. WSQ encoded fingerprints) are stolen, or inappropriately "provided". The SSN and credit cards and other financial data can be revoked and new ones issued. For traditional biometric data that cannot be done. If an ID theft ring is as organized as those involved in these articles, making gummy fingers would clearly be within their ability. (Having made them mysel I know how easy it really is). As these example suggests, it is not sufficient to expect encryption to protect data, now when the company or an insider, provides it to others. In a recent paper, Raffaele Cappelli et al show that templates can be converted back into prints that can fool commercial systems 80%-90% of the time. When companies say you cannot get the orginal back, its only a half-truth. You don't need the orginal, just something that can fool the existing system. Note that while earlier efforts actually hacked all they way in and spoofed a systems, e.g. Chris Hills template hack , this is more powerful(complete) "reconstruction" than the earlier systems in that it reconstructs the a ridge patterns consistent with the original and once generated can be used against proprietary template systems. When these large scale losses start to included biometrics, it would begin to have long term implications for security and identity theft. One hopes the risk of a DVM or Welfare office seeing the fake finger in use is a sufficient deterrent, but I doubt the risks at an ATM or Krogers would be a deterrent. If a gummy or another fake version of "the stolen" fingerprints/biometric were used to obtain new identity documents or authorize transaction those trying to regain their stolen identity would be fighting an even more difficult battle. Lest you think this is "new" or difficult you can check out the articles on faking prints or watch the video clip of me doing it on the Colorado News .

    Privacy/Biometrics News Items

    Privacy/Biometrics Links

    Increasing security and the goal to decrease fraud have been increasing the deployment devices that check a person's identity using biometric identifiers such as fingerprints, iris/retina, or facial patterns. For instance, Oracle's Larry Ellison has advocated the deployment of mandatory national ID cards with fingerprint information to be matched against a national database of digital fingerprints to confirm the identity of the card's carrier. Nations around the world are also considering similar proposals. Many states are now requiring biometrics in the driver license.

    Devices using biometric identifiers attempt to automate identification or verification by comparing the information scanned in real time against an "authentic" sample stored digitally in a database. The technology has had several early technology issues, but now appears poised to become a common feature in the technological landscape. There are significant privacy and civil liberties concerns regarding the use of such devices that must be addressed before any widespread deployment. These links address either the issue, or programs rushing into widespread deployment.

    Securics is one of the partner companies in the new Bachelor of InnovationTM degree at UCCS.

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