U.S. Sen. Chuck Schumer (D – N.Y.) is proposing biometric Social Security cards as a way to better curb illegal immigration into the country, according to a Newsday article. Schumer has taken over as chairman of the Senate immigration subcommittee from Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) and may play a more important role in immigration policy. […]

In the second year of a partnership between the Smart Card Alliance and SourceMedia, the theme of CTST is enabling secure identity and payments in a mobile world. CTST: The Americas 2009 will take place May 4 – 7 at the Hilton New Orleans Riverside. The conference sessions are broken down into five tracks: identity […]

Unisys Corporation, developer of various biometric technologies and solutions, has announced that it has been chosen by Australia’s Queensland Transport to provide facial recognition services for their new digital driver licenses. The five-year contract between the two entities stipulates that Unisys will provide facial recognition software, image capture devices, case management software and various service […]

The latest report from the industry analysis organization IdTechEx forecasts a growth in the overall RFID market for 2009. The report, “RFID Forecasts, Players & Opportunities 2009-2019”, predicts that the global RFID market for this year will be worth $5.56 billion, up from $5.25 billion in 2008. Much of the growth in the industry can […]

Singapore’s Immigration and Checkpoints Authority (ICA) has announced plans to combine the five databases of biometric information, now holding the information of all their citizens and visitors, into one central database to streamline and standardize access to the information, according to a Channel News Asia article. The ICA explains that it is moving on this […]

CoreStreet announced that the State of Colorado will leverage CoreStreet’s Federal Information Processing Standard (FIPS)-201, enabling interoperable credential validation technology to support the rollout of the Colorado First Responder Authentication Credential (COFRAC) Bridge. The COFRAC standard was created by the State of Colorado as a means to electronically validate the identity and attributes of those […]

GenMobi Technologies has unveiled Check-Mates, an anti-fraud technology tailored for Internet consumers who use Web sites such as eBay and Craigslist to buy and sell goods from strangers. Check-Mates verifies the real identity of both users while allowing them to remain anonymous. Should any fraud occur, Check-Mates logs can be released to law enforcement authorities. […]

Oberthur Technologies has delivered the first prototypes of the Generic ID Card Command Set (GICS) card compatible with Microsoft Windows 7. ID-One GICS, an identity applet, has been developed to answer the needs for a generic card command set that provides functionalities required by both government and corporate applications. Backward compatible with PIV, this product […]

The UK sheep farmers are seeing a shortage of sheep shearers due to the new ID card system attached to the migrant work-permit program, according to a Bloomberg news article. As the biometric ID cards that are required for the work permits cost roughly $300, shearers from New Zealand and Australia, where majority of the […]

The United Kingdom is considering adding EMV functionality to its ID cards, according to ZDNet UK. EMV is used in UK payment cards to protect against fraud and some say it can be useful while others say it’s not secure enough. With chip-and-PIN cardholders could access government and private-sector services online using the PIN to […]