Investor's Business Daily

10 Years Out? No, Biometrics Coming Of Age

April 24, 2003
By Donna Howell

Biometrics — reading personal features such as faces and fingerprints to prove identity — is on the verge of stamping a bigger footprint.

After years in R&D, and widest use by government and law enforcement, the security science is getting pushed further out of the nest by a few recent developments.

Tests now show which biometric measures of identity are ready for prime time. That is, accurate enough to go into big, federally mandated homeland security projects. Technical standards are coming together, too.

Meanwhile, there are nudges from within the computing industry. For instance, Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) has been readying its software to work more fluently with biometric gear.

Biometrics hasn't yet seen its long-anticipated boom, so the industry has gotten used to disappointment. The joke is that adoption is always 10 years out. But these days, vendors are hopeful that the way's really being cleared for a more reliable rate of uptake.

Headed For The Border

"Adoption of biometrics will follow from government and law enforcement to regulated industries like finance and health care before it actually reaches the masses," said Frances Zelazny, spokeswoman at Identix Inc., (IDNX) a large biometrics provider based in Minnetonka, Minn. Privacy regulations in areas like finance and health care help drive interest, she says.

At the moment, all eyes are on U.S. borders, which are set to become a biometrics proving ground.

The Enhanced Border Security and Visa Entry Reform Act of 2001 demands biometric IDs on documents of visitors to the U.S. starting in October '04. "There's some ambiguity in what that means," said Raj Nanavati, partner at New York analysis firm International Biometric Group. "But at all ports of entry, there must be the capability to read the biometric off that visa or passport."

Nanavati says the deadline hasn't spurred buying. "It's spurring interest in planning as to how to move forward," he said. How such projects turn out could speed or slow biometrics adoption in general, he adds.

"The technology is real, and it's out there today on a moderate scale," he said. "But the pending scale is immense."

What kind of biometrics will be used to check IDs at borders? "There have been a number of recommendations pointing to finger and face," said Zelazny. Identix has technology that handles both.

But no one in the industry has handled a project as big as the border gig. "It's a very large-scale project," Nanavati said. Some 41.9 million visitors entered the U.S. last year, says the U.S. Office of Travel & Tourism Industries.

The National Institute of Standards and Technology deemed facial recognition accurate enough for use on a wide scale, like fingerprint scans. But it suggested, for border security, using both. Other biometrics, such as iris scanning, haven't been tested for border security because they lack a big enough image comparison database.

Work has been under way to settle on a method for handling facial recognition and other biometric data, Zelazny says. "The point of this is to get all the vendors on a common platform," she said.

As the border project and other federal initiatives move forward, industry and state governments are steadily increasing their interest.

For instance, Nanavati's firm recently began doing research work for an association of American and Canadian motor vehicle departments. It's examining how to build large-scale biometrics systems.

Biometrics have already made it into daily life, Nanavati says. "A few hundred thousand schoolchildren use it every day to buy their lunch," he said. "And many people sign up at a point-of-sale machine to pay by check and authenticate themselves using their biometric."

In such cases, biometrics are seen not only as providing strong security, but also convenience that leads to cost savings.

Making Things Easier

New features in Microsoft software should make it easier for firms to use biometric IDs.

The company suggested years ago that it would build more capability into future versions of Windows, Nanavati says. It would let different vendors attach their biometric devices to applications more easily than in the past.

Microsoft is including enhanced support for biometrics and smart cards in its Windows Server 2003 operating system software, set for general release Thursday. 

It can be set to demand certain types of ID depending on the user's connection, notes Tony Iams, research director at analysis firm D.H. Brown Associates Inc. in Port Chester, N.Y.

For instance, a remote user logging in from his laptop could be asked to sign on with a fingerprint scan. Local users inside a secure building might need just a password.

The move toward biometrics — and smart cards — is just beginning, Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates noted in a recent speech. "But there's been very good progress," he continued. "Corporations are starting to understand how important that is."

Redmond, Wash.-based Microsoft uses smart cards itself to restrict access to top-secret software source code, Iams says. "They've also indicated that they've started to use biometrics internally as well," he said.

Microsoft is sponsoring a second round of annual biometrics technology benchmarking tests to be done by International Biometric Group, Nanavati noted. "They're definitely interested in the technology," he said.

Gets Public Support

The public appears to support biometric scans. A recent 1,000-person survey by Rochester, N.Y., pollster Harris Interactive Inc. found support for homeland security surveillance down little from just after the 9-11 terrorist attack.

Some 77% of those polled said they support the use of facial recognition technology to scan for suspected terrorists. That compares with 81% a year earlier and 86% in September 2001.

"This kind of support for government surveillance is surely much, much stronger than before 9-11," said Harris Poll Chairman Humphrey Taylor. "Had we asked five, 10 or 15 years ago, I am certain we would have had far less."

Yet consumer groups, also government reports, urge that privacy concerns be addressed as use of biometrics marches forward. And several dozen cities have formally spoken out against the USA Patriot Act, which enhances government surveillance powers.