thommsf
Oct 19, 01, 10:54 am
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2001/10/19/BU213013.DTL&type=business
I love how SFO is always one of the firsts!
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SFO to buy high-tech fingerprint scanner
Benny Evangelista, Chronicle Staff Writer Friday, October 19, 2001
San Francisco International Airport said yesterday that it will install new biometric fingerprint technology to help speed criminal background checks of employees.
The announcement of SFO's $40,000 contract for a scanning system from Identix Inc. of Los Gatos comes a day after Oakland International Airport said it plans to install high-tech biometric facial-recognition technology to help identify wanted criminals and terrorists.
Every airport in the country is looking at using biometric security technology in the wake of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks the East Coast. But a biometrics expert cautioned that such technologies can be ineffective if airports do not use them properly.
"Blind reliance on the technology is a bad thing in every scenario," said Raj Nanavati, a partner in the International Biometric Group, an independent New York consulting firm that has examined 75 different biometric technologies from around the world.
San Francisco International will become the ninth major U.S. airport to use the Identix TouchPrint 2000 system to screen employees and job applicants. The system should be installed by the end of October.
The airport has a hiring freeze, but the Federal Aviation Administration has required major airports to conduct new criminal background checks on employees who have access to the airfield or planes.
The fingerprint reader, which is tied to a computerized database of fingerprints, helps shorten the time needed for the background checks for each employee from weeks to hours, said SFO spokesman Ron Wilson.
"It makes it a lot easier on us," Wilson said. The airport has about 35,000 employees, the majority of whom require new background checks.
Identix also makes a fingerprint reader that is being tested by Chicago's O'Hare Airport to control who can open doors to sensitive airport areas.
Oakland International said on Wednesday that it will be the first airport in the country to install face-recognition technology that matches facial characteristics against a database of wanted criminals and suspected terrorists. Airport officials say they will not use the system to randomly scan crowds but to check the identities of people detained for being suspicious.
Nanavati said he expects more airports will install similar technologies in the next few years.
"Everybody's still doing their research," he said. "We're talking to a slew of airlines and people in the transportation sector."
However, he said that each technology comes with drawbacks if not used in the right situation and that there is a danger in relying on one technology to be foolproof.
For example, facial-recognition technology used to broadly scan crowds might pick out one suspected terrorist but also trigger dozens of false hits due to a variety of factors, such as disguises or poor lighting, he said.
Fingerprint technology can be more accurate, but only if a suspect is in a database, he said.
"With fingerprint, you probably would catch just about everybody with not nearly as many false rejections," Nanavati said. "On the other hand, we probably don't have Osama bin Laden's fingerprints on file, but we do have his picture."
E-mail Benny Evangelista at bevangelista@sfchronicle.com
I love how SFO is always one of the firsts!
---------------------------------------------
SFO to buy high-tech fingerprint scanner
Benny Evangelista, Chronicle Staff Writer Friday, October 19, 2001
San Francisco International Airport said yesterday that it will install new biometric fingerprint technology to help speed criminal background checks of employees.
The announcement of SFO's $40,000 contract for a scanning system from Identix Inc. of Los Gatos comes a day after Oakland International Airport said it plans to install high-tech biometric facial-recognition technology to help identify wanted criminals and terrorists.
Every airport in the country is looking at using biometric security technology in the wake of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks the East Coast. But a biometrics expert cautioned that such technologies can be ineffective if airports do not use them properly.
"Blind reliance on the technology is a bad thing in every scenario," said Raj Nanavati, a partner in the International Biometric Group, an independent New York consulting firm that has examined 75 different biometric technologies from around the world.
San Francisco International will become the ninth major U.S. airport to use the Identix TouchPrint 2000 system to screen employees and job applicants. The system should be installed by the end of October.
The airport has a hiring freeze, but the Federal Aviation Administration has required major airports to conduct new criminal background checks on employees who have access to the airfield or planes.
The fingerprint reader, which is tied to a computerized database of fingerprints, helps shorten the time needed for the background checks for each employee from weeks to hours, said SFO spokesman Ron Wilson.
"It makes it a lot easier on us," Wilson said. The airport has about 35,000 employees, the majority of whom require new background checks.
Identix also makes a fingerprint reader that is being tested by Chicago's O'Hare Airport to control who can open doors to sensitive airport areas.
Oakland International said on Wednesday that it will be the first airport in the country to install face-recognition technology that matches facial characteristics against a database of wanted criminals and suspected terrorists. Airport officials say they will not use the system to randomly scan crowds but to check the identities of people detained for being suspicious.
Nanavati said he expects more airports will install similar technologies in the next few years.
"Everybody's still doing their research," he said. "We're talking to a slew of airlines and people in the transportation sector."
However, he said that each technology comes with drawbacks if not used in the right situation and that there is a danger in relying on one technology to be foolproof.
For example, facial-recognition technology used to broadly scan crowds might pick out one suspected terrorist but also trigger dozens of false hits due to a variety of factors, such as disguises or poor lighting, he said.
Fingerprint technology can be more accurate, but only if a suspect is in a database, he said.
"With fingerprint, you probably would catch just about everybody with not nearly as many false rejections," Nanavati said. "On the other hand, we probably don't have Osama bin Laden's fingerprints on file, but we do have his picture."
E-mail Benny Evangelista at bevangelista@sfchronicle.com