Articles
ISRAEL: Dubai job re-raises concerns over biometrics
The Dubai affair has had its eyebrow-raising moments, like theTwitter accident (since un-tweeted) and the latest trends in spy wear. But it’s also re-raising concerns about the possible next phase in smart identification: biometrics.Intelligence agencies in false mustaches could soon beoutsmarted by systems using biometric information to provide categorically positive IDs.Phony IDs are used by the underage crowd to acquire beer as well as in the perpetration of scams, espionage and terrorism. Israel says it has about 350,000 fakes floating around, costing the country the equivalent of hundreds of millions of dollars. Financial scams are expensive; terrorism costs lives. A few years ago, Israeli authorities started pushing for smart, un-fake-able IDs with foolproof information – and also a national biometric database. A group called NO2BIO campaigned against the biometric-database bill; among other actions, they mooned cameras outside the house of then-Interior Minister Meir Sheetrit in the wee hours, showing privacy goes both ways.Israel’s low-tech population database is already on the Web. But leaked biometrics such as facial features could allow anyone with a grudge and software (and maybe a gun) to pick out Israelis – average Joes and high-ranking officials — from a crowd in an airport or downtown rush hour anywhere in the world. It’s universal jurisdiction on speed.
Avi Dichter, legislator and former head of Israel’s General Security Service (GSS), says Israel secures far more sensitive databases. Government minister and lawmaker Michael Eitan says a biometric database is like a nuclear reactor that nobody needs – and heaven help everyone if it leaks. Protests and warnings from information security experts led the government to reconsider halfway through legislation and announce a two-year pilot program on a voluntary basis instead. The Justice Ministry is already mulling legislation banning private biometric databases too.Biometric identification is bad for bad guys but also for the guys who are after them. Agents will have to find new ways to cross borders when the world goes biometric and disguises won’t fool programs measuring distances between points on a person’s face. One report said Dubai would give Interpol retinal scans of the suspected assassins, but Israeli experts were dubious. Future operations will be higher tech and higher risk. Meanwhile, Michael Bodenheimer, an Israeli Torah scholar, continues to explain that it’s someone else who applied for that (genuine) German passport in his name. And who paid for the tickets bought with those credit cards is still unknown.Yossi Melman writes in Haaretzthat the Dubai assassination was probably one of the last of its kind. Advanced technologies and biometrics will change the rules and, paradoxically, wind up hurting intelligence agencies, particularly Mossad, which is widely believed to have assassinations in its DNA and uses actual agents to carry them out, he writes.If Mossad chief Meir Dagan and his like really are Superman, then it seems someone left some stuff in the phone booth while changing – and lots of people want to know whose stuff it is. Israel already got in trouble when a bunch of British passports for use by Mossad agents were found in an actual phone booth in Bonn in 1987. With biometrics knocking on the door, Superman is going to have to find a new costume — or maybe a new job altogether.– Batsheva Sobelman in JerusalemPhoto: Human retina, now being increasingly scanned in biometric identity checks. Credit: Texas State University website
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The Team
Michael (Micha) Shafir
Founded Pons Holdings (Technology Greenhouse) on March 2003 and PonsEye Medical Sciences LTD. on August 2003. 2000-2003 - MagniFire Co-Founder, CTO and Chief Architect. Founded MagniFire on August 2000 (F5 Networks has bought MagniFire WebSystems on June 2004 for $29 million in cash).
Micha has over 17 years of networking and information security experience. Before founding MagniFire, he headed new product development at Radware Ltd. (NASDAQ: RDWR). At Radware Micha participated in and led the new technology definitions and implementations, working closely with resellers worldwide and established the company's support team. Prior to his work in Radware, Micha established the integration department and acted as its manager at Israel's largest networking company, Bynet Data Communication Ltd.
Micha holds a B.Sc. degree in Computers Science & Electronics Engineering, from Ben-Gurion University, Israel and long patents attainments (Medical science, security, networking and communication).
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Articles
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Evidence
Seven arrests in Ratanak Kiri fake uniforms caseThe Phnom Penh Post
Chrann Chamroeun and Mom Kunthear
Police arrest group after catching one suspect wearing a fake two-star general’s uniform
SEVEN people were sent to Ratanakkiri provincial court on Wednesday after they were found with forged government documents and fake military police uniforms, a provincial military police chief told the Post.
Tuy Sim, Ratanakkiri provincial Military Police chief, said his officials had arrested the group after one of its members was caught wearing a fake general’s uniform.
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…when he began to panic they suspected him and took them to the police station.
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“Our men had lunch with [one of the suspects] and he was wearing casual clothes, and then later in the day they saw him wearing a two-star general’s military police uniform travelling to a pagoda in a Mitsubishi car with six other people,” Tuy Sim said.
He added that upon raiding the car, police found a gun, four other uniforms and forged documents, including one with the signature of Prime Minister Hun Sen and another that was signed by Minister of Agriculture Chan Sarun.
“They asked him for his name and which unit he came from, and when he began to panic, they suspected him and took them to the police station,” he said.
Illegal logging suspected
Pen Bonnar, provincial coordinator for the rights group Adhoc, told the Post Wednesday that he welcomed the arrests because he believed the group was likely involved in illegal logging.
“I request that authorities further investigate the group, as we have found that a lot of people who have fake police uniforms and forged documents are involved in illegal logging.”
News
U.S – National ID card
A bill under discussion in the U.S. Senate could force Americans to take sides on two issues that are extremely important to millions of people: illegal immigration versus privacy.
The controversial legislation appears to be a solution to the problem of illegal immigration. It would require the issuance of identification cards for all workers in the United States. Besides the name and photograph, these cards would contain biometric information, such as fingerprints, so they would be extremely difficult to manipulate.
The goal is to tie the worker to his or her card. If the information doesn’t check out, then the person isn’t eligible to work legally in the country.
It’s a bold move, but it is one that should make privacy advocates more than a little nervous.
The cards would be, in effect, a national ID card, a tool supported by some law enforcement officials a few years ago but was shot down by opponents who believe such a card could hamper freedoms. The concern rests with the possibility that if the cards can contain biometric information, then they could one day include tiny components that allow the government to track the movements of citizens.
This bill, which has sponsors from both major political parties, faces a difficult road to becoming a law, but it does draw out an important question: Is freedom more important than solving the immigration issue?
Illegal immigration is a problem. The costs of providing education, providing health care and other services for illegal immigrants are exorbitant. A biometric identification card could be the solution, but it also imposes on legal immigrants and citizens. Such a card could start our nation down the slippery slope of eventually having something in our wallets that allow the government to track our every move.
There are other solutions, such as improving and then enforcing the use of the E-Verify system, in which a person’s legal status is reviewed during the hiring process. The Utah Legislature is considering such a move, albeit without any real penalties for businesses that ignore it.
The point is that although legislation may curb a big problem related to approximately 12 million to 14 million illegal immigrants, it could cause even larger problems for the other 300 million-plus people in the country.
Even the potential for giving up freedom is too high of price to pay.