Tripled Vigilance
01.07.2009
Tripled Vigilance
By 2012 the European market of biometric technologies will triple. International security will be the main “biometrization” direction in the EU. Ukraine, in order not to become a European outsider, has to resolve legislatively the issue of the introduction of an electronic travel passport in the nearest future
Inevitable Growth
Security issues continue to grow in the modern world; such destructive effects as illegal migration, human trafficking and international crime aggravate the economic decline. These matters open the door to new opportunities in the European market for biometric technologies which, as Our Product wrote, will be growing despite all the economic problems (see Our Product, №2/2007, pp. 86-91).
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Our reference Natural Genetic and Physiological Features (Static Biometric Methods): • Fingerprints • Hand shape • Iris or retina • Voice parameters • Facial features • Fragments of genetic code • Face thermogram (thermal photograph) (scheme of blood vessels). Individual Peculiarities Gained During Lifetime (Dynamic Biometric Methods): • Peculiarities of speech dynamics • Shape and method of signature or handwriting sample • Method of working with PC keyboard • Gait peculiarities. |
As Our Product wrote, at the Conference of the INTERPOL National Bureaus Mr. Ronald K. Noble, the Secretary General of INTERPOL, gave an outrageous example when within three months the same Iraqi citizen was seized three times with different stolen passports from European countries (see Our Product, №1/2009, pp. 26-28).
It is obvious that poorly protected IDs can be lost, forgotten, counterfeited and broken. Biometric identification ensures a more secure solution as it is based on the use of unique physical features (fingerprints, iris image, etc.).
Data from analytical studies confirm that the biometric technologies market will grow. According to assessments of the International Biometric Group, today the volume of the world biometric solutions market is growing 20-25% on average. In the next few years the growth rates will increase to 30-35%. As the company informs us, the market size increased from 1.95 billion US dollars in 2006 to 2.7 billion US dollars in 2008.
According to the company’s forecasts, in 2009 it will amount to 3.42 billion US dollars and in 2012 it will be 7.1 billion US dollars (see diagram Size of the World Market of Biometric Technologies on p. 76).
For example, as Frost & Sullivan analyst Mattia Grossi stated “the European market of biometric products will grow almost three times by 2012 compared to its volume in 2008”. The state sector is playing a notable role in the market growth since its order volumes constitute the “lion’s share” of the market – 44.5%. Most likely the state orders will make the largest contribution to the development of biometric technologies.
Methods of Identification
Today, the most popular method of identification is dactylography, or personal recognition by fingerprints. Dactylography is widely used for physical and logical access control in state and private institutions as well as for fraud prevention in the financial sector.
A sample of the device for reading fingerprints
Traditionally, dactylography is applied in forensic science; the volumes of information to work with are counted in millions of records. Data on citizens’ fingerprints is recorded into identification cards (ID-cards), internal passports, and into travel passports. To date this technology is used in the passports of many countries, including the US, some EU countries, Singapore, and Great Britain.
World producers and developers of information technologies and communications are armed with fingerprint technology. In some cell phones, communicators and computers there is the possibility of using fingerprints as a “password” to enter the device's operative system.
The major feature of this technology is its cost effectiveness. The main drawback is that the fingerprints of elderly people, some workers and representatives of some ethnic groups are difficult to recognize because of undefined or “wiped” patterns.
The commercial potential of dactylography is quite high; in 2008 the share of this segment amounted to more than 50% of total sales in the world biometric market, or almost 1.4 billion US dollars, according to reports of the International Biometric Group. In 2005-2007 the financial “weight” of this field grew rapidly – 25-30% in a year. However, in 2009 the share of sales of these technologies will decline. In four years the segment of fingerprint technologies will grow at about 55% and will be 2.65 billion US dollars in 2012, or almost 37% of the world market of biometric technologies. This will be due to the increase of growth rates of sales and fields of application of alternative technologies (see diagram Sales Structure of Ready Solutions by Types of Biometric Identification Technologies in the World).
Nowadays automated face-control or 2D/3D face recognition is being actively developed and widely used. First, a special camera registers the parameters of the object's face, then they are compared with the data recorded in the database. We have to note that women’s make-up, aging changes, and long-term alcohol consumption make facial recognition difficult with the unaided eye. According to various assessments, the authenticity of such analysis is 86-93%, which is why automated recognition using biometric identification and verification is more reliable than visual photo inspection.
Facial identification systems are often used in the developed countries for searching for criminals as well as in airports while passing passport control, since facial image is applied in biometric passports as a data source. These systems are also used in casinos for detection of fraudsters and for blocking access to “black listed” persons.
According to International Biometric Group information, in 2008 the share of facial recognition technologies was 17.5% of the total biometric technologies market, or almost 460 million US dollars. According to prior forecasts, the facial identification segment will continue to strengthen its position. In 2012 its volume will be 1.35 billion US dollars or 19% of the total market structure.
The iris, or rather its unique pattern, is is used as a source of biometric information. To register the iris pattern the person has to be closer or position the face in front of the sensor, therefore a person most likely will know for sure when he or she was being checked.
Identification by facial parameters is more inobtrusive: when a person is walking along a corridor, at the moment the person is passing the best view zone the camera makes a control image.
The technology of iris identification is used in the biggest international airports (for example, in London, Dubai, Amsterdam and in many other cities). Passengers who are frequent air travelers were able to participate in the launch of this technology and received their so-called iris-code registration in the database. Later, they didn’t have to stand in lines for passport control.
In 2008 the share of this market segment was 243 million US dollars or 9% of sales. Analysts of the International Biometric Group state that this technology potential allows them to forecast the growth of sales volume in the segment to 752 million US dollars by 2012. By that time the share of orders for iris recognition technologies will increase to 10.6%.
To strengthen their positions, technologies of facial and iris recognition have to overcome some limitations in their application. Levels of illumination and background in the room are characteristics that greatly influence the quality of personal identification and verification by the said features since they can change, and it is difficult to keep their uniformity.
For example, in light that wasn’t programmed into cameras or scanners the image is unlikely to reflect necessary physical parameters of a person that were needed. That is why a person has to be placed under standard conditions, e.g. in an isolated booth.
Modern scientists are also working on dynamic biometric verification technologies: using peculiarities of speech, voice, handwriting and other characteristics.
It is clear that dynamic characteristics change under the influence of emotions; they depend on a person’s mood and age, so they don’t fare as well in comparison to the static features (fingerprints, iris and facial image).
Despite all the disadvantages, in 2008 the market of voice identification technologies cost 432 million US dollars, or 16% of the world biometric market volume. The fact is that this technology has wide application and has made a name for itself in fields directly connected with users’ address processing by phone (call-centers etc.); it allows faster service to subscribers. In more significant projects (particularly related to the necessity of confidential information protection) voice identification plays an additional role regarding other biometric technologies (for example, fingerprint identification).
According to the analysts’ forecasts, by 2012 the popularity of the technology will grow, therefore, the segment share of voice identification technologies will amount to more than 22% of the world market, or 1.56 billion US dollars.
On a smaller scale the following biometric technologies are used: personal identification by the position of veins on the hands or face, hand geometry, ear lobe structure, DNA and even body smell, since some of them are considered to be too expensive and inefficient.
Each of these technologies has its limitations for e-documents manufacture; therefore, the majority of countries apply a few types of biometric features. According to the experts’ opinion, the combination of a few types of biometric parameters will be used in the future.
By its technological characteristics the EDAPS e-passport
overcomes its analogues manufactured in the EU
Ukrainian-Type Biometric Technologies
At the end of April 2009 the EU Council of Ministers on General Affairs and International Relations adopted universal standards of biometric travel passports for EU citizens. According to the new rules, the documents have to contain the person’s 3D photo and fingerprints. The country-members of the EU plan to introduce the new European legislation in three years, by 2012.
Ukraine positively differs from the European countries by its level of biometric solutions. In particular, the national EDAPS Consortium (supplier of security technologies in the ID sector and developer of the new highly secured travel passport with a polycarbonate data page) created technologies for the manufacture of electronic documents in 2006. In 2008 EDAPS, together with the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine, carried out the presentation of the electronic travel passport sample developed by the specialists of the Consortium (see Our Product, №2/2008, pp. 66-75).
The document sample performed in conformity with ICAO recommendations. Software developed by the Consortium specialists allows information about the passport holder recorded on chip to be read and shown on monitor of a passport terminal in less than 2 seconds. Under the ICAO standard, the duration of this procedure shall not exceed 5 seconds.
According to the ICAO requirements, text personal data (surname, name, patronymic, date of birth) and biometric data - 2D photo, digital signature and fingerprint pattern formed using special methods are written into the microchip. Therefore, using the world’s scientific experience, Ukrainian specialists apply combined data. By its technological characteristics the EDAPS e-passport overcomes its analogues manufactured in the EU.
All data registered in the chip were previously processed by the cryptographic method (encoded) and were secured by international standards. The result is that only a special device is able to read data on the electronic chip. A human can’t decode the data templates, so the level of information security is very high.
It is impossible to counterfeit the e-passport developed by the EDAPS. Its sample was recognized repeatedly as one of the best in the world by the competent international organizations – UN, OSCE, European Commission and International Criminal Police Organization (INTERPOL). Moreover, as Our Product wrote, INTERPOL has concluded with the Consortium the Memorandum on the creation of a prototype of the EDAPS electronic passport (see Our Product, №1/2009, pp. 16-25).
Despite the complete readiness of the Consortium to mass produce biometric passports as well as clear tendencies of the “biometrization” of passport systems and border control, our government is not in a hurry to provide citizens with electronic passports. In particular, as Our Product has already written, according to the ICAO recommendations all 190 member-countries, including Ukraine, undertook to provide issuance of electronic passports to its citizens by April 1, 2010.
Naturally, the European Union has also requested that Ukraine implement biometric travel passports to receive the right of visa-free entry to the EU countries since Ukraine can become a weak link and gateway of illegal migration.
The absence of legislative basis is the only obstacle that prevents the implementation of the biometric travel passport in Ukraine. The most ridiculous thing is that deputies have only to consider and adopt the draft law On National Demographic Register. One of the authors of this law is People’s Deputy Vasily Gritsak.
Mr. Gritsak was saying that the draft law was adopted in the first reading more than two years ago in December 2006. The document “was also revised for the second reading, considered and approved by the relevant committee of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, and on September 2, 2008 it was submitted for consideration at the plenary session of the parliament. But the issue of its consideration was postponed for an undefined period because of a known political event”.
Text: Anna Levkovskaya
Photo: Dmitry Korablyov, Oleg Tetenkin, Igor Orlenko
Source: Magazine "Our Product" No 2(2009)
