The government in Orissa, a state on the East coast of India, has introduced biometric smart cards to replace ration cards that will be used in a pilot with its citizens in the Rayagada district, according to a SiFy article. The new program was developed in a joint effort between the Orissa government and the United Nations World Food Program in hopes of improving the Targeted Public Distribution System.

HID Global demonstrated its PKI at the door solution that leverages existing physical access control infrastructures at the Smart Card Alliance Government Conference. The solution replaces intermediary pieces of an access control system to enable the higher-security transaction, says Nathan Cummings, director of integration and application for OEM channels at HID.

BIO-key International announced the results of tests performed on its biometric software and matching algorithm at a hospital over the past three months.

The results, which included 251,447 attempts to use biometrics for login to the testing system, ranked between 99.34% and 100% accuracy with zero false matches. This is a near 100% true accept rate and one staff member that logged in 5,999 in November without a single rejection.

The redesigned UK passport has been released and features improved security features and iconic images from across the country.

The new 10-year passport will start being issued in October, with pages of the passport containing well-known UK scenes, including the White Cliffs of Dover, the Gower Peninsula, Ben Nevis and the Giant’s Causeway.