Terror Hunt: Hounding With Biometrics
10 Apr, 2002 · 718
Maj Gen Yashwant Deva argues for the use of Biometrics in terror hunt
They will be brought to justice or justice will be brought to them
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- George W Bush
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Biometrics was a developed science during ancient times in
Today biometrics is a frontier technology. Over the last decade the biometric industry has come a long way. Many devices are in the market, and some are reportedly used by hi-tech criminals.
Biometrics has many versatile but yet-to-mature applications. Of significance here is detection of bank frauds, Automatic Teller Machine (ATM) operations, workstation and network access, e-business transactions over the Internet, biometrics embedded credit card, key encryption security enhancement, digital water-marking, public identity smart cards and, above all, voice recognition for telephonic conversations. Biometrics can lend greater potency to digital signatures, which the country has adopted from Republic Day this year. The sky is the limit for possibilities that can be put to use for cyber intelligence operations, e.g. tracking hawala (money laundering) and illicit drug trails, monitoring Internet Relay Chats (IRC), e-mails, steganography and for counter-hacking and counter-terror operations.
There are undoubtedly many problems and gray areas in realizing the full potential of this technology, some technical, some commercial, but more psychological. The first problem lies in obtaining the sample or biometric template of the individual, whose identity is to be verified. Undoubtedly this is a Herculean task and often a sheer impossibility. However it would be folly if biometric samples have not been gathered and archived for example in respect of Osama bin Laden or Masood Azhar. The technology can work in controlled lab conditions or perhaps in a virtual environment, but not for real-time or large scale. The unit cost of gadgets is exorbitant and currently there is no demand for mass application.
The performance of a biometric device is measured in terms of its failure rate—“accept-fail” or the likelihood that an impostor may be accepted, and “reject-fail” or the likelihood of rejection of a bona fide person. The bias for either leaves scope for manipulation and spoofing, besides putting a question mark on its confidence level. Take for instance fingerprints, the absolute uniqueness of which is often debated. Recently a justice in the
Much work continues to be undertaken and it will be interesting to watch its progress. Integration, scan-fusion and networking will achieve the desired quality and product reliability. Biometrics is a transition from science fiction to an over-the-horizon technology. Let us create public awareness about it and get down to some serious R&D.