MasterCard is looking at biometrics as a way to cut down on transaction fraud. The payment company will pilot a system that enables customer to choose between fingerprint or facial recognition to confirm a transaction.

Facial recognition biometrics is experiencing a period of growth; the FIDO Alliance adds NFC and Bluetooth to the FIDO 1.0 specifications; Precise Biometrics partnered with Fingerprint Cards to have Precise BioMatch Mobile integrated into two new smartphones from Chinese manufacturers.

Hundreds of thousands of refugees are finding assistance – and something unexpected – in safe camps around the world: a biometric identity they can use long after they move on. These permanent biometric records are being created by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, better known as the UN Refugee Agency.

The Israel Diamond Exchange has deployed FST Biometrics secure access solution at the entry point of its new polishing house; Telaeris adds biometric identification to its handheld line of products; Crossmatch announced enhanced functionality of its DigitalPersona Altus strong, multi-factor authentication solution.

Financial institutions are adding different authentication mechanism for consumers. Chase is enabling consumers to check account information with a fingerprint and Bank of America will be rolling out additional security mechanisms as well.

Tractica forecasts that shipments of onboard fingerprint readers in mobile devices will surpass 1 billion units annually by 2021; Entrust Datacard announced the latest release of the Datacard CardWizard software; Crossmatch announced that its fingerprint readers have been deployed by Togo’s Eateries Inc. to increase security, improve accountability and reduce fraud at the Point-of-Sale.

AVISIAN Publishing is pleased to announce the release of the interactive version of the Summer 2015 Regarding ID magazine. Highlights from the issue include: Cybersecurity leaves front gate unguarded, Opportunity and issues surround electric grid security standard, UN biometric system streamlines relief to refugees.

Computers can’t replace humans when it comes to tattoo recognition. That’s a key finding from the Tattoo Recognition Technology Challenge Workshop hosted by NIST. But computer algorithms are getting better, and new standards are being considered for the collection of tattoos. NIST computer scientist Mei Ngan organized the technology challenge and led the workshop and spoke with Regarding ID’s Gina Jordan.