Identification has been used to catch criminals for more than 100 years, thanks to breakthroughs in areas such as fingerprint and DNA analysis.

Now identification using biometric data is creeping into IT systems, with the creation of applications that use biometric technologies such as iris and fingerprint recognition.

In the UK the Home Office has evaluated biometric systems, which authenticate a user's identity by taking a reading, such as a fingerprint, and comparing it to an original template, for use in areas like passport control and entitlement cards. An iris recognition system could be in place at UK airports by the middle of next year.

However, there are still barriers to the widespread adoption of the technology - barriers that a research team at Kent University aims to overcome by developing more robust and reliable detection systems.

[ Read more ]

Related items

• Article: Corporate Access Cards: Securing Corporate Networks With Military-Strength Digital Identity Solutions (24 April 2003)
• Article: PKI... Why Go Through the Hassle? (15 April 2003)
• Review: Understanding PKI: Concepts, Standards, and Deployment Considerations 2/e (23 January 2003)