Facing the future with BSI's NEW Biometrics standards for recognition technology

Citation

(2006), "Facing the future with BSI's NEW Biometrics standards for recognition technology", Sensor Review, Vol. 26 No. 1. https://doi.org/10.1108/sr.2006.08726aab.002

Facing the future with BSI's NEW Biometrics standards for recognition technology

Facing the future with BSI's NEW Biometrics standards for recognition technology

Keywords: Biometrics, Standards

Four new international standards on biometric technology have just been published by BSI Business Information to Protect UK Business and Consumers.

The BS ISO/IEC 19794 series of standards cover the science of using biological properties to identify individuals – for example, the recording of fingerprints, iris scans and facial recognition – that is set to become a part of everyday life. Some of these standards will be used for the recording of biometric data on UK Passports and on UK ID Cards (If the Government's proposal is passed into law).

Whilst security threats and fighting terrorism have been the catalysts behind these standards, BSI is also striving to protect both individuals against ID inaccuracies and UK commercial interests in the biometrics industry. BS ISO/IEC 19794 applies to access control and identification systems, for example, information stored on smart cards or other recognition tools, as well as the storage of biometric identification data in corporate databases.

Reinforce security and prevent fraud

These standards are essential for those concerned with government contracts and procurement, or with the enhancement of IT security through the identification of personnel and/or physical access control. They will be of interest to any organization wishing to reinforce security and prevent fraud by implementing strong identity management and access management.

Essential to the following professional activities:

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  identity product/service vendors;

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  identity document issuing authorities;

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  home office planners (for police and prison services activities);

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  legislators;

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  systems integrators; and

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  auditors.

Specified by governments

A number of governments (including the UK, other European countries, and Israel) have specified that the use of biometrics by government departments shall conform to these international biometrics standards, and have recommended that private organizations avoid vendor-specific solutions for data storage.

Use of the standards will enable one vendor's equipment to produce a biometric data block in a format (whether it is finger minutiae, finger, face or iris image) that can be compared directly with the relevant biometric data block format produced by a different vendor's equipment, without the need for any collaboration between the two vendors (interoperability).

These four standards are the first, and probably the most important, of the biometric data block standards to be produced.

Written for use in identity management systems, the standards cover will be used in or by:

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  UK passports and UK ID cards (if the government's proposal is passed into law);

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  access management systems;

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  forensic identification;

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  identity product/service vendors; and

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  identity document issuing authorities.

For more information please visit www.bsi-global.com/biometrics

BS ISO/IEC 19794-2:2005 Information technology. Biometric data interchange formats. Finger minutiae data

This standard defines a biometric data block format that contains a digital record of the features that can be identified and extracted from a digitised fingerprint. It specifies how the minutiae are to be identified, and their relative positions recorded, but most importantly the data structure (the biometric data block format) to be used to record this information. This international standard has two main formats. The first provides rapid and easy matching, the second is a more compressed format that is more suitable where the biometric data block is stored on a smart card.

BS ISO/IEC 19794-4:2005 Information technology. Biometric data interchange formats. Finger image data

This standard defines a biometric data block format that contains a digital record of the image of one or more fingers (or of a palm). It specifies how the image is to be acquired, and how it is to be converted to a digital representation, with a full specification of the digital format.

ISBN 0 580 46455 5 Price £92[1], £46 BSI subscribing members

BS ISO/IEC 19794-5:2005 Information technology. Biometric data interchange formats. Face image data

This standard defines a biometric data block format that contains a digital record of the image of a face. It specifies how the image is to be acquired (including lighting, pose of the subject – expression, head-dress, etc), and how it is to be converted to a digital representation, with a full specification of the digital format.

ISBN 0 580 46409 1 Price £128[1], £64 BSI subscribing members

BS ISO/IEC 19794-6: 2005 Information technology. Biometric data interchange formats. Iris image data

This standard defines a biometric data block format that contains a digital record of the image of an iris. It specifies how the image is to be acquired, and how it is to be converted to a digital representation, with a full specification of the digital format. Two formats are defined. The first can be produced by minimal processing of the image. The second is more compact, but requires more processing of the image.

ISBN 0 580 46456 3 Price £106[1], £53 BSI subscribing members

Note that interoperability amongst different vendors of biometric products and services cannot be assured by a simple statement of compliance with standards. This should be done by sufficient testing or reference to laboratory certification of the vendors' implementations.

For orders, contact: BSI Customer Services quoting marketing reference code 19794-PR. Tel +44 (0)20 8996 9001; Fax +44 (0)20 8996 7001; E-mail: orders@bsi-global.com; web site: www.bsi-global.com/biometrics

P&P £4.17 UK (inclusive of VAT), £5.83 Overseas (+VAT if applicable). P&P is free to BSI subscribing members. Pre-payment is required from non-members. All prices, content and publishing dates may be subject to change.

Visit the BSI web site at www.bsi-global.com