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BIOMETRICS WHEN TRAVELING
Airports are using biometric technologies,
such as iris (eye) scanning, to improve travel safety. Two
of the first airports to begin scanning passengers'
irises as part of an effort to streamline boarding and
security processes were Charlotte Douglas International
Airport (CLT) in North Carolina and Frankfurt Airport (FRA)
in Germany in the year 2000. For more information, go
to http://archives.cnn.com/2000/TECH/computing/07/19/iris.scan.idg/
index.html.
BIOMETRICS AT WORK
Corporations are always faced with
security issues such as employee identity theft, equipment
theft, vandalism, and improper registering of hours worked.
Additionally, they incur significant costs replacing
lost or stolen building keys or access cards (badges)
and correcting time and attendance issues. By implementing
biometric systems, employers can develop an employee
identification database to control access to particular
locations and equipment based on specific clearance
levels, prevent fraudulent time and attendance entries,
and protect their assets from theft.
Biometric systems have advantages
for employees as well. For instance, employees no longer
have the need for access badges, keys, or parking passes.
Additionally, their identity cannot
be stolen and used by someone else.
Normally this technology is stored
in a database as a mathematical template of a fingerprint
and is perfectly secure. However, there are advanced
systems that allow employees to retain control of their
template. Instead of having the template stored in a
company database, it is stored on a smart card's chip.
When employees want to gain access to a facility, they
present/use their smart card in addition to their fingerprint.
The reader matches the fingerprint to the template stored
on the card. This is a very secure system because even
if a card is stolen, no one can gain access to a facility
using it since his or her fingerprint will not match
the template stored on the chip. Additionally, no one
can modify the template because the information stored
on the card is encrypted.
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