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Biometrics council wants to fill standards gap
By Andrew Donoghue
http://news.com.com/Biometrics+council+wants+to+fill+standards+gap/2100-7348_3-5953928.html
Story last modified Tue Nov 15 12:50:00 PST 2005
Biometrics experts from industry and government have banded together to form
an organization to tackle some of the serious standards issues that could
delay widespread deployment of the technology.
Announced on Tuesday, the International Biometric Advisory Council (IBAC) is
made up of representatives from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security,
IBM and international security organizations.
The main objective of IBAC is to remove ambiguity around the development and
use of biometrics. The group will target much of its attention on sister
organization the European Biometrics Forum. The EBF is supported by the
European Commission and aims to establish the European Union as a "world
leader in biometrics."
"International cooperation on issues such as standards and interoperability
is essential for the future of biometrics. The IBAC will facilitate the
cooperation and will also give the European biometrics community a global
stage," said IBAC member Bernard Didier of security company Sagem Defense
Securite.
The formation of the IBAC follows calls from government and the private
sector for a global standards body to oversee biometrics development.
As reported earlier this month, Robert Mocny, deputy director of the
US-Visit program, has backed calls for an international body to monitor
biometric usage. "Currently there is no body, but you'll see shortly there
will be one. The EU is going to start using biometric passports, and other
countries will follow. That needs coordinating," he said.
Cal Slemp, vice president and global leader of security and privacy services
at IBM Global Services, said wider international cooperation is needed to
establish a common language and standards for biometrics.
"There are organizations that work together on this issue, and issues like
that across borders all the time, and it can be as grandiose as to say the
UN has a process in place to share information like that and create working
groups to try and to create standards or expectations and across multiple
jurisdictions," Slemp said. "I just don't know what the name would be."
Current efforts are piecemeal, and much more can be done to exploit the
potential of the federated environment, Slemp said.
The IBAC will meet twice a year and have a maximum membership of 12
individuals, but more members will be invited to join in the coming months.
Andrew Donoghue of ZDNet UK reported from London. ZDNet Asia's Vivian Yeo
contributed to this report.
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