IfG.CC -
Institute for eGovernment

Singaporeans can now access e-government services using their fingerprint, facial recognition or a 6-digit passcode with the launch of the new Singpass Mobile application for smartphones today.

People no longer need to memorise secure passwords or have to lug around a physical token whenever they have to use their SingPass to access e-government services.

Singapur will ab Ende 2005 Reisepässe mit maschinenlesbaren biometrischen Daten wie etwa Fingerabdrücken ausgeben.

He described the reports as ‘misleading’ and mere ‘fabrication of lies.’

Commissioner Aiah Mattia said the machine in Tonkolili had developed some problems and had to be taken to Freetown for repairs, adding that it was during this event that people thought that it had disappeared.

The Government of Sierra Leone has lamented that it can no longer afford to subsidise the cost of passports for its citizens. This was revealed at the launching the new e-passport (Biometric) for citizens at the Ministry of Internal Affairs Conference Hall at Gloucester Street, Freetown on Monday August 31st 2015. In his statement, the Minister of Internal Affairs, J. B. Dauda said government over the years has been investing heavily in the production of passports which resulted in subsidizing each passport purchased for only One Hundred thousand Leones by citizens with an additional top-up from government of a whopping Two Hundred Thousand Leones to the passport manufacturer. That was for the ordinary machine-readable passports. The country was now moving from machine-readable to the more sophisticated and expensive Biometric E-Passports.

The Indian Prime Minister's expert committee, headed by chairman C Rangarajan, has claimed that new biometric cards could replace the traditional ration cards to ensure grain is equally distributed among citizens.

"As an alternative to the existing public distribution system (PDS) we may switch over to the use of smart cards which simply means that the food subsidy may be directly transferred to the beneficiaries instead of to the owners of PDS stores," the committee said in its report, according to the Hindustan Times.

Smart city development is a growing market, especially within the realm of security, innovation and public health. Biometrics are due to play a key role; the global access control market alone, which largely includes biometric technology for smart cities, is projected to grow from USD 8.6 billion in 2020 to USD 12.8 billion by 2025, at a CAGR of 8.2%, according to MarketsandMarkets.

Biometric voter registration to be introduced at the upcoming national general election at the end of this year is a highly advanced biometric information system designed to address the need of a robust and secure voter registration and identification system.

The briefing, hosted by biometric identity control specialists Ideco and Stanley Security, in partnership with ITWeb, outlined the risks of identity fraud in financial services, and the inadequacy of existing identification methods.

Ideco MD Marius Coetzee said SA was adopting biometric technology in many industry verticals, with Ideco technology being used to verify the identities of over 2.5 million employees around the country.

Infineon provides its SOLID FLASH SLE 77 security controller to Net1’s subsidiary Cash Paymaster Services for implementing this service.

GreenBox was developed by local company Meniko, a document management specialist that is working closely with Ideco Biometric Security Solutions to take the product to market.

The new solution combines a camera, fingerprint reader, document scanner, digital signature pad with an interactive touch-screen, EMV-compliant smartcard reader, USB connection, device drivers and MS-based operating systems.

The department will replace its current sign in/sign out system by 2015, or earlier, if the teachers will agree and funding can be found. Current reports speculate that the project could cost R480 million.

Leading experts in this market believe the country faces an uphill battle against ruthless suppliers who vaguely understand biometrics and are driving sales targets without providing adequate after-sales service. There are also many posers who have no genuine track record in the market or sufficient expertise to add any real value.

Speaking at the agency's performance review workshop on Friday, CEO Virginia Petersen said her priorities on appointment – more than a year ago – were to achieve a clean audit, improve the grant payment system, improve service delivery and achieve automation.

She added that SASSA has made progress in achieving these priorities, with the biometric system assisting in rooting out fraud.

The agency is rolling out a new biometric system in a bid to eliminate fraudulent payments to dead people, which will save it R800 million a year.

Net1 UEPS was granted the five-year bid, worth about R10 billion, to distribute social grants across SA's nine provinces. The company will provide the solution for payment of about 15 million grants to 10 million South Africans.

Plans by the South Australian Government to roll out biometrics at a number of prisons acrosss the state have been delayed due to required construction work.

Plans for the trial were announced in May. Pending a successful trial, it will be rolled out to sites including Yatala Labour Prison, Adelaide Women’s Prison, Mobilong Prison, Port Augusta Prison, Mt Gambier Prison, Cadell Training Centre, and Port Lincoln Prison.

According to the Korea Immigration Service on Monday, foreigners age 17 or older will undergo fingerprint and facial scanning upon entering the county starting Jan. 1.

The program started scanning those from countries deemed high-risk by the KIS in September 2010, and has since expanded to include all foreigners choosing long-term stay here.

As Korea grows, so has its numbers of visitors. More than 77 million Foreigners visited Korea in 2010 alone, and as of August 2011, 1.4 million have decided to make their residence in Korea. There has been a corresponding increase in illegal immigrants. To keep better track of this, the Ministry of Justice has implemented various policies such as fingerprinting and an Advanced Passenger Information System (APIS). To learn more about the e- government system of Korean Immigration Service, Korea IT Times had an interview with Lee Chang-se, Commissioner of Korea Immigration Service at the Ministry of Justice. With his 20 years of experience as a prosecutor in the Seoul Northern District Prosecutor's Office, the Commissioner showed his zeal to bring a new perspective to the policy making process at the Korean Immigration Service. "What we prioritize in policy making is the harmony between international citizens and our citizens. Even if a policy itself is perfect for immigrants, it can have a negative influence to our own citizens. We consider a lot to lessen any possible side effects of a new policy," he said. Their upcoming fingerprint and facial Identification System is expected to slow down the international citizens' immigration process, but the Korean Immigration Service at the Ministry of Justice is searching for way to overcome this in the near future with the best IT technology. "Although the words security and fast immigration processing sounds conflicting, it is our challenge to provide both to our visitors and citizens," the Commissioner said.

This project proposed by the President as the Minister of Defence and Urban Development aims to enhance the security features of passports by streamlining the Automated Fingerprint Identification System.