US Names The Day For Issueing Biometric Passports

From: "KD Weber"
US Names The Day For Issueing Biometric Passports

US Names The Day For Issueing Biometric Passports
By John Leyden
The Register - UK
http://www.rense.com/general39/usnam.htm
7-22-3

A senior US government official has laid out detailed plans for the
timing and form of US government issued biometric passports.

Frank Moss, deputy assistant secretary for Passport Services, presented
his organisation's plans to evolve to a new, more secure "intelligent document"
from today's paper-based passports at the Smart Card Alliance's Government
Conference and Expo conference last week.
"Our goal is to begin production by October 26, 2004," Moss announced.

Current plans call for the new passport books to include a contactless
smart chip based on the 14443 standard, with a minimum of 32 Kbytes of EEPROM
storage. The chip will contain a compressed full-face image for use as a
biometric. European biometric passports, by contrast, are planned to feature
both retinal and fingerprint recognition biometrics on their smart cards.

For US passports, the image and the passport information stored on the
contactless chip will be digitally signed to ensure the integrity of both the
data and the passport itself.

With this approach "you can read a chip and confirm its validity, but
you cannot create one. That is the beauty of public key technology," said Moss.

The United States produces about seven million passports per year.

For the US Passport Services' program to move forward successfully other
countries must also agree to common specifications, so US officials are working
closely with the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) to drive the
process forward. There's little doubt this is a US government initiative, fueled
by post-9/11 terrorism fears, which is rapidly gaining momentum.

Under the US Enhanced Border Security and Visa Entry Reform Act of 2002,
countries whose citizens enjoy visa-free travel to the United States must issue
passports with biometric identifiers no later than October 26, 2004.

Quite how effective biometric passports will be in frustrating terrorist
activity is a completely different matter...