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Maintaining the Security of your Organisation during the COVID-19 Outbreak

The current global outbreak of the COVID-19 virus has left the world reeling, with severe ramifications on both an economical and personal level. Unfortunately, in a world of diverse organisations from public to private sectors, the ripple effect is and will continue to be felt for some time to come. Before this outbreak many organisations were in the process of adapting their security to that of touchless devices but were faced with data collection privacy impacts. Now, as it happens, touchless is the best and only option to combat the issues of hygiene and avoid contamination. In fact, the decision to stop using shared biometric readers, has been in line with the advice supplied by the health organisations and witnessed in other countries, where many government establishments have opted to abandon fingerprint authentication in an effort to stop the spread of the virus. The limiting or removal of the biometric system which requires contact, due to this pandemic, has increased the exposure of organisations and introduced further potential security breaches for individuals falsifying identification to pass through restricted areas. The use of touchless biometric devices is the way of the future but now it is a necessity to not only keep organisations and personnel secure, but to also maintain the highest level of hygiene and eliminate any concerns from individuals using the device. Traditional biometrics require an individual to make physical contact with the device, increasing the risks of contamination and aiding in the distribution of potentially harmful germs. As we have been witnessing in the past few months, simple gestures like a hand shake or holding the same door handle as someone else can lead to catastrophic consequences when allowed to occur. Contactless biometrics are not only less intrusive than the traditional devices but, they also sustain the ability to gather biometric samples without jeopardising the individual or the security standard required. Introducing a touchless device enables the peace of mind some may have regarding the cleanliness of the device and ensures the sterile space for such contact to be made without any actual physical interaction. The use of the contactless fingerprint device, Iris devices and facial recognition at a distance provides a more pleasant experience for the end user. The current situation the entire world finds itself in with Covid-19,  has also brought to light the very need for a large-scale technology transition into more hygienic and sterile security systems and encouraged more organisations to adopt contactless biometrics not only for the safety and security of themselves but also for the health and wellbeing of all involved. Furthermore, removing the physical contact with devices also reduces the amount of maintenance required. Perhaps the biggest impact is seen with contactless fingerprint. Glass platens as found on traditional devices, can take a beating over time. As a result, they require ongoing cleaning and replacement of protective silicon pads or possibly even the entire device. Contactless technology allows longer run times with less cleaning and fewer consumables necessary to support ongoing system availability. Arana security offer a number of contactless access control, payment, time attendance and enrolment and verification systems. 

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morphowave, access control, aranasecurity, idemia

What are biometrics

Biometrics is the use of people’s unique biological characteristics to identify and authenticate individuals. It’s considered to be the most reliable and efficient way for ID authentication. Unique identifiers include fingerprints, hand geometry, face geometry, retina and iris patterns and voice waves.   Current trends in Biometrics: With increasing threats from identity fraud and theft and new threats such as terrorism, new and advanced technology solutions are required and being implemented.   Biometrics has established itself as one of the most pertinent means of identification and authentication. It is being rolled out across many different sectors including governmental, travel, education, corporate and financial.   Although there is some reluctance and public acceptance, the increase in accuracy and security has meant it is becoming more publicly accepted. This has meant that it is being rolled out across industries and applications faster than ever before.   Typical use cases where biometric technologies are used: Law enforcement and public security (criminal/suspect identification) Military (enemy/ally identification) Border, travel, and migration control (traveller/migrant/passenger identification) Civil identification (citizen/resident/voter identification) Healthcare and subsidies (patient/beneficiary/healthcare professional identification) Physical and logical access (owner/user/employee/contractor/partner identification) Commercial applications (consumer/customer identification) Commercial buildings Types of Biometric Identification The oldest form of biometric verification is fingerprinting. Historians have found examples of thumbprints being used in ancient China as a means of unique identification on clay. Many law enforcement organisations have been using ink fingerprint identification for many decades. However, more recently Biometric verification has advanced considerably with computerized databases and the digitalising of analogue data.   Iris and retina biometrics was the next biometric methods to become more widely utilised. Iris identification became popular in the financial sector. More recently Facial and hand geometry has been the emerging technology and more widely used. An example of such technology is the iDemia MorphoWave Compact which uses hand geometry for identification. Facial-recognition technology has been used by law enforcement alongside CCTV for some time now to pick out individuals, however, more recently it is being used across different industries including mobile phones.   AI and Voice recognition is the most recent advancement in biometric identification. This method is being rolled out more in the commercial sector for consumers across many different applications and is becoming increasingly popular.   How are Biometrics used? No matter what biometric methodology is used, the identification and authentication process remains the same. A record of a person\’s unique characteristic is captured and kept in a database or locally on a device. When identification and verification are needed, a new record is captured and compared with the previous record in the database/device. If the data in the new record matches that in the database record, the person\’s identity is confirmed.

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