Volume 1 Issue 1 July 1996

PREMIER ISSUE

Welcome!

T his is the premier issue of the Biometrics in Human Services User Group Newsletter. The Biometrics in Human Services User Group (BHSUG) membership is open to all state, federal, provincial, educational or other governmental organizations interested in keeping pace with the latest developments in this field. The focus of BHSUG is providing a platform for sharing ideas and innovations, distributing findings, identifying best practices, recommending and creating useful standards for both human services users and technology developers for this market.

Members may submit articles for publication in BHSUG's quarterly newsletter. No anonymous contributions will be accepted.

The use of biometrics by human services organizations world wide is quickly emerging as a useful tool in small and large scale identification projects. Finger imaging, hand geometry, retinal scanning, facial imaging along with many other biometric technologies are rapidly being adapted to a host of state of the art identification applications. General information about current human services applications is not readily available. BHSUG will serve as an independent vehicle that will keep you informed of the latest technological developments in this field. In addition, BHSUG can serve as a valuable networking tool that will help you tap valuable information resources from your peers working with this technology.

There are no membership fees. The newsletter is distributed via E-Mail. By special request the BHSUG Newsletter can be provided via regular mail.

The Massachusetts Department Of Transitional Assistance announced that beginning in April 1996, they have implemented a combination finger imaging system and facial identification system for welfare recipients. They are utilizing the services of Lau Technologies and The National Registry, Inc. Len Aiello, project director, reports that three offices located in the cities of Lawrence and Springfield are enrolling recipients. The pilot project, originally mandated by the legislature for six months will continue through April of 1997. So far they have imaged over 1,300 recipients.

Richard Nawrot, Project Director for New York State, has announced that New York has begun imaging AFDC recipients. They expect to enroll 450,000 AFDC recipients before years end. Currently, they have imaged 270,000 Home Relief (GA) recipients. Nawrot reports that they currently have 640,000 enrollees in their database. He cited the following other activity: 700 system administrative matches, 160 fraudulent or attempted fraudulent enrollment, and 40 arrests for welfare fraud. New York will have one of the largest human services finger imaging enrollment programs in the US. Morpho Systems, Inc. is the technology provider.

Project Director, Mike Greene, from New Jersey, DSS informs us that New Jersey has enrolled 30,000 General Assistance recipients. The National Registry Inc. is the technology provider. Plans are underway to run a match with New York state.

The state of California has released an RFP to expand their highly successful AFIRM program statewide and to include AFDC recipients. They expect to select a vendor in 1996 and begin statewide operations sometime in 1997. The AFDC database is expected to contain three million enrollments in just the first year

Connecticut project coordinator, David Mintie, has announced that they have so far enrolled 68,000 AFDC and General Assistance recipients into Connecticut's finger imaging system which commenced operations on January 22, 1996. The National Registry, Inc. is the biometric technology provider for this project. NBS Imaging Systems, the prime contractor, is providing over the counter ID card issuance for the project. The card contains a 2D bar-code with the recipients finger image minutiae. Connecticut is discussing cross state matches with both New York and New Jersey.

Connecticut has also announced a biometric home page on the world wide web. Set your browser to:

In addition to overview material about the Connecticut project, the page also has data on the following topics:

- Connecticut Legislation Authorizing

- A Report On The Legislative Background

- Connecticut's Planning and Implementation Process

- Using Finger Imaging To Verify Ownership Of A Token (card) using a 2D Bar Code

- Connecticut's Equipment Configuration

- Understanding Public Perception, Building Internal And External Support

- Statewide Rollout Planning

- Legal Precedents

- Privacy Issues

- Survey Of Clients Who Were Finger Imaged

- On-Line Results/Recidivism Study *

* Under construction at this time

Connecticut officials have announced early results of AFDC and General Assistance (GA) program enrollments. 31 percent of all AFDC recipients failed to appear for enrollment. 41 percent of all GA recipients also failed to appear. Statewide GA mass enrollments were completed on May 13, 1996. Statewide AFDC mass enrollments will be completed on August 29, 1996. Finger imaging is mandatory for both groups. Significant savings are expected.

Part of keeping informed is to know who is doing what, where and when in the field of Human Services Biometric identification systems. It helps to know who the contacts are in each area. Perhaps you can benefit from their experience. The following is a current list of active sites as well as other states, provinces and human services organizations actively pursuing biometric systems.

Location Technology Date Operational

______________________________________________

California Organization: State Dept. Of Social Services Contact: Richard Ebel (916) 445-0812

Organizations: County Dept. Of Social Services

Alameda County Finger 1993 Contact: Contra Costa County Finger 1993 Contact: John Lee (510) 313-1861 Los Angeles County Finger 1993 Contact:Paul Fast (310) 908-8517 Location Technology Date Operational

______________________________________________

Orange County Finger 1994 Contact: June Marcott (714) 541-7725 Sacramento County Hand 1995 Geometry Contact: San Diego Finger 1995 Contact: San Francisco Finger 1994 Contact: Juan Galvan (415) 557-5285

Connecticut

Statewide AFDC & Finger 1996 General Assistance Contact: David Mintie (860) 424-5132 E-Mail: DmintieCT@aol.com Organization: Dept. Of Social Services

New Jersey

Northern Half/state Finger 1995 Contact: Michael Greene (609) 588-2395 Organization: Dept. Of Social Services

New York

Statewide AFDC & Finger 1995 Home Relief Contact: Richard Nawrot (518) 474-9730 E-Mail: RNawrot@aol.com Organization: Dept. Of Social Services

Massachusetts

Trial AFDC Finger & 1996 Facial Imaging

Contact: Len Aiello (617) 348-5725 E-Mail: LJARAA@aol.com Organization: Dept. Of Transitional Assistance

Other states/provinces actively investigating biometric ID systems

Florida Contact: Gerald Brooks (904) 488-4761 Organization: State Of Florida

Michigan Contact: Rose Jarois (517) 335-6576 E-Mail: JaroisR@sosmail.state.mi.us Organization: Michigan Dept. Of State

Mississippi Contact: Robert Martin (601) 359-4561 Organization: Dept. Of Social Services

Missouri Contact: Patsy Boozer (816) 932-8158 Organization: St. Luke's Hospital

Nevada Contact: Dan Fredrickson (702) 455-5722 Organization: Clark County Dept. Of Social Services

Pennsylvania Contact: Sandra Mateer (717) 772-4742 Organization: Gov. Office Of Administration smateer@exec2.cmicpo1.state.pa.us

Rhode Island Contact: Paul McLaughlin (401) 464-2374 Organization: Dept. Of Human Services

Texas Contact: Robert Ambrosio (512) 438-5456 Marta Blumenthal (512) 438-5586 E-Mail: marta.blumenthal@aries.dhs.state.tx.us Organization: Dept. Of Social Services

Ontario, Canada Contact: Joe Manion or Toni Vigna Organization: Toronto Social Services

Citibank is reportedly testing voice verification technology for use in it's electronic banking services.

In Atlanta, GA., The Olympic Village officials, staff and competitors will be enrolled in a hand geometry system at this summers world games.

Advanced Precision Technology announced the APrint® system designed for automated real-time verification. The system incorporates laser-based holographic technology and finger imaging. Users of this PC based system personally verify every access or transaction using their fingerprint instead of a PIN code, password or other ID.

Planning to go to the Walt Disney theme parks? Visitors purchasing a seasonal or annual pass to Disney MGM, Epcot or the Magic Kingdom will be enrolled in a finger geometry system. Finger geometry readers are being installed at the turnstiles. In the past, ticket purchasers were issued a photo ID.

Charles Schwab & Co., Inc. is using live-scan finger- printing system on its head-quarters employees. It is believed to be the first securities brokerage in the country to make use of such technology to conform with Securities & Exchange Commission requirements.

An ATM system incorporating facial recognition biometrics is being tested in Germany by Siemans Nixdorf. The system is tied to the users smart card which also contains a stored facial image.

Unisys Corp. won a contract from Spain's Ministry of Labor to help create a national social security "smart card" identification system The project is known as TASS. The project will use automated fingerprint identification technology to provide access to personal information stored on smart cards. Citizens will be able to access information about their benefits at shopping malls and other public buildings via 1,500 kiosk terminals and local health care computer networks nationwide. With access to information protected by fingerprint-recognition devices, individuals will be able to carry out a range of unassisted transactions from checking their benefit contributions and pension entitlements to looking at the latest job opportunities or even registering with a new doctor. The nationwide roll-out of the smartcard project is to be completed by 1999, when 40 million cards will be operational at an overall cost of $400 million

Motorola, the world's leading supplier of microcontrollers for smart cards, has announced a contract with the Czech Republic for the production of 10,000 chips for a pilot health Insurance SmartCard project. Motorola commented that this contract is an example of a growing trend amongst governments across the world to combine the latest biometric and smartcard technologies for the administration of public sector services and benefits. Carrying selected health insurance and identity details, the smart health cards will enable speedier delivery of health care services to the individual as well as providing instant access to key medical information, particularly valuable in emergency situations. For health-care providers and insurers, the project should help reduce administrative costs and incidents of fraud.

ATM customers of the Standard Bank of South Africa have their fingerprints scanned instead of entering a PIN when they wish to withdraw funds, make deposits or balance inquiries.

The state of Florida has announced that all drivers in Florida may soon be carrying a driver's license with a magnetic strip to eliminate tampering with or faking of licenses. A pilot program is also examining the recording of digitized images of an individual's fingerprints on the stripe. Other states that already record finger images and record them on drivers licenses are California, Colorado and Texas.

The College of Engineering at California's San Jose State University (SJSU) has received a grant for $400,000 to investigate biometrics and their potential in the Commercial Drivers License Identification System (CDLIS).

Retailers in Orange County, California are using stripe readers to collect and verify information from the license stripe for personal check transactions.

The GAO (General Accounting Office) released a report entitled "Electronic Benefits Transfer - Use of Biometrics To Deter Fraud in the Nationwide EBT Program". In it, the report notes that "fingerprinting may be the most viable option".

The Employment Services Office, South Shields, England is reported to be using signature verification devices in several of it's offices along with several welfare offices in the same area. 22,000 persons are enrolled in this system

Fingerscan Pty Limited, has designed and implemented biometric systems for use in such areas as bank employee's access to ATM's, time and attendance monitoring at one of the Pacific Rim's largest supermarket chains, and electronic banking security for a major bank's automatic payroll package, among many traditional access control applications.

The State Of Nevada schools chancellor is investigating the use of biometric finger imaging in a new positive attendance system designed for use in the public school system in that state.

Pensioners in South Africa are using their fingerprints as positive ID in order to receive their monthly pension funds. A pilot check cashing ID project is set to be launched in Dade County, Florida for non customers of First Union and Sun Trust Banks. They will have their thumb prints along with their signatures recorded as part of the transaction. It is reported that Florida banks lose as much as $100 million each year because of fraudulent checks. John Hall, a spokesman for the American Bankers association reports that technology is being developed to place fingerprint identifiers on the mag stripes of ATM and credit cards. "It's for the cardholders' security," Hall said.

Chemical Bank announced that it has selected a voice verification system for use in customer identification. Two trial sites will use voice verification technology to identify customers prior to performing their banking transaction. The trials are scheduled to run for approximately 20 weeks. Enrollment can be done at the Long Island branches or from the customers home. The bank claims verification can be accomplished in less than 12 seconds.

Joseph Campbell, from the Biometric Consortium, reports that there is currently no truth to the rumors that an ISO committee on biometrics had been convened. The President and CEO of Comparator Systems has resigned according to a report in USA Today. Comparators Systems' penny stock skyrocketed to $1.75 (US) per share shortly before CardTech/SecureTech, Atlanta, GA, in May, pending the announcement of a new finger imaging product. Since then, NASDAQ suspended trading and subsequently delisted the company. The SEC has sued Comparator, charging it with accounting as well as reporting violations and fraud. Other industry reports have been published claiming that Comparator was allegedly claiming a stolen fingerprint identification device as it's own.

Over six thousand participants browsed through more than 342 exhibits during the week of May 13 to 16, 1996 at the Inforum in Atlanta, GA. This event has become one of the premier yearly events for users, government agencies or card manufacturers or anyone connected with the biometric or secure ID card business. 23 seminars, 174 speakers covering topics ranging from transportation and health care to university and government applications. Representatives from 60 nations were present. The keynote address was given by futurist Alvin Toffler.

Recent ads by MasterCard Inc., touted the future introduction of fingerimaging as a PIN (Personal Identification Number) for their credit cards.

MasterCard International announced at the CardTech/SecurTech 96' conference that it will begin testing biometric technology in its Purchase, New York headquarters next month.

The purpose of the tests is to determine the reliability and efficiency of different types of biometric technology to be used in the financial payments industry to provide positive personal identification of mastercard customers. MasterCard noted that a biometric technology would allow for positive verification that a cardholder is the true cardholder, far beyond that which is available today.

"Our objective is simple: to make MasterCard the safest way to pay," said Joel S. Lisker, senior vice president, Security and Risk Management, MasterCard International. "We must, therefore, investigate new technologies that will help ensure safe, secure transactions for our members and their cardholders worldwide."

MasterCard has been conducting internal research on various biometric technologies for at least two years. "We decided to test finger minutiae because, at this point, it provides the highest degree of reliability, ease of enrollment and acceptance than other technologies on the market.

MasterCard also looked at hand geometry, voice recognition, dynamic signature and retinal scanning before choosing finger minutiae for its internal test.

When a cardholder goes to make a transaction, they touch a small screen with their finger, it reads the finger minutiae and matches it against the numeric value previously loaded on the smart card chip.

"One of the most important factors to be aware of with finger minutiae is that we are not talking about fingerprinting," Lisker emphasized. "The way finger minutiae works is that an algorithm assigns a numeric value based on the unique characteristics within the pattern of your finger that are unique to you. It's that digitally encoded value that is verified. There is no comparison of fingerprints per se."

Three different types of tests will be conducted on-site at MasterCard, including employee access, electronic time sheets and visitor control.

For more information on these tests, MasterCard can be reached through "Pointers," its World Wide Web site, at http://www.mastercard.com.

AFB (Association For Biometrics)

Contact: Mr. Peter Hawkes British Technology Group Electronics Division 101 Newington Causeway London, England SE1 6BU http://www.vitro.bloomington.in.us:8080/~BC/afb

The Biometric Consortium

http://www.vitro.bloomington.in.us:8080/~BC/>*

The Human Identification System Project

http://www.asti.dost.gov.ph/~shoreadm/HIS.html

Biometric Technology Today SJB Services London House

Broad Street Somerton,Somerset TA11 7NY England

http://www.sjb.co.uk

Biometric Digest P. O. Box 510047 St. Louis, MO 63151-0047

http://www.icon-stl.net/~jsweeney/biometrics.html

SUBMITTING ARTICLES TO THE BHSUG NEWSLETTER

Submissions are invited and encouraged.

Submissions must contain the authors name and organization.

They must be submitted as plain ASCII text or in Microsoft Word format.

All submissions can be addressed to the editor:

Mail Address:

DSS Digital Imaging Project 25 Sigourney Street Hartford, CT. 06106-5033

Editor: David Mintie Connecticut Department Of Social Services

Advisory Board: Leonard Aiello Massachusetts Dept. Of Transitional Assistance

Richard Nawrot New York Dept. Of Social Services

Michael Greene New Jersey Dept. Of Social Services