Biometrics early adopters reveal secrets, challenges

NEW YORK - In a conference room overlooking the site of the World Trade Center, early adopters of biometrics technology this week stressed the importance of determining someone’s true identity.

Gathered at the Millennium Hilton across the street from the site, attendees of the Fall 2004 Biometrics Summit heard about the challenges and benefits seen by those who would implement biometrics, both before and after the 9/11 attacks that put a greater focus on security needs. They also heard about why some companies still aren’t yet ready for biometrics, technology that uses the personal characteristics of users to identify them.

Acknowledging that most of the 9/11 attackers used driver’s licenses to board the airplanes they would use as weapons, one presenter said biometrics should be a key tool, in conjunction with better verification of identity-proving documents, in the process of obtaining driver’s licenses.

Illinois was the first to use facial recognition technology in its DMVs, four years before 9/11, and the state is currently preparing an upgrade to its systems, said Beth Langen, administrator of the policy and programs division of the Driver Services Department in the Illinois Office of the Secretary of State. The measures have helped combat fraud, catching those who try to get multiple licenses for different identities.

“One guy came in a couple of times a day, to different facilities, to get licenses,” Langen said. Another woman had 13 different identities, one of them real, and used them for theft. She was caught and imprisoned. In all, 1,700 cases of fraud have been discovered using the facial recognition software, with 173 people claiming three or more identities.

Originally, the department had considered using fingerprint readers, but went with facial recognition for several reasons. It’s passive and non-intrusive. “When you come to a DMV, you expect to get your picture taken,” Langen said. By contrast, people associated fingerprinting, especially a few years ago, with having been arrested, she said.

Huge volumes of pictures have been added to the department’s database. It now contains 16 million pictures, and it is growing by 8,000 to 12,000 every day. At night, the system goes through all the new pictures to see if any faces match the pictures already on record. If there are some that look similar, they are sent to a fraud unit in the morning, which compares demographic data and signatures to determine if the similar-looking people are one and the same person.

Another biometrics pioneer represented at the conference was the New York City Law Department, which implemented a hand-geometry system for entering its offices and recording time and attendance.

The department had used a sign-up sheet before that, but employees who didn’t want anyone to know they came in late started ripping out pages, said Malachy Higgins, chief of administration. The office tried using card readers, but found that administering the cards was a big headache, and if they were going to be late, employees could give cards to others who went in earlier to make it appear that they were on time.