Whose to Blame for UK Biometric Border Debacle?

The latest on the UK border debacle is a classic  case of “he said, she said”

UK border chief Brodie Clark quits over passport scandal with broadside against Theresa May

Brodie Clark, the senior civil servant at the heart of the scandal over relaxed passport checks, has made a direct attack on Theresa May, accusing the Home Secretary of misleading the public.

His resignation and attack on Mrs May escalates the most serious immigration row the Coalition has faced.

Over the summer, (Mrs May) secretly authorised border staff to stop checking biometric data in the passports of European arrivals at ports and airports. She says Mr Clark then defied her clear orders and extended the policy to non-Europeans.

Regardless of how this all washes out, whose at fault, and who actually takes the blame, the failure to complete biometric ePassport checks at the UK border is just bad news for biometrics at the border.

“Secure border” programs are consistently attacked  in many locations as  excessively expensive while providing minimal if any improvement in security. The  senstiive nature of  data related to these programs precludes most countries in most cases from releasing performance statistics. So, the only public relations are the fiasco stories aka the current UK border debacle feeding the fire of those with legitimate concerns about the cost benefit implications of identification programs.

Sadly, as we have seen many times in our industry, it is not the biometric or other identification technology that is at fault, but rather poorly designed, implemented, or managed ID programs that fail us.

EU End to Passport Free Travel Big Boost for ABC?

The latest news form Europe is that passport free travel across the Schengen area may be a thing of the past.  In response to the influx of Arab spring’s  flood of refugees, “European interior ministers agree to ‘radical revision’ of Schengen amid fears of a flood of migrants from north Africa“.

The extremely scary part of this development is that it is being driven by a “resurgent Europhobic far right across the EU”.  Yikes.

In a serious blow to one of the cornerstones of a united, integrated Europe, EU interior ministers embarked on a radical revision of the passport-free travel regime known as the Schengen system to allow the 26 participating governments to restore border controls.

The border-free region embraces more than 400m people in 22 EU countries, as well as Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Iceland. It extends from Portugal to Russia’s borders on the Baltic, and from Reykjavik to Turkey’s border with Greece.

The move to curb freedom of travel came as the extreme nationalist right, which is increasingly influencing policy across Europe, chalked up a notable victory in Denmark, which announced it would unilaterally re-erect controls on its borders with Germany and Sweden

So, while I am somewhat chilled by the motivation, it would seem Automated Border Control processes at air, land and sea ports for people, and personal and commercial vehicles will be critical to minimize the impact of these measures on cross border facilitation.

I would imagine (and hope) that some of this “Europhobic” hysteria will be tempered over the next few months and years, though in the short term it will likely provide a boost to the industry.

We must, however, be very careful as an industry NOT to be seen as a vehicle for the expression of right wing politics. The consequences of  becoming embroiled in the midst of an idealogical struggle will not only be detrimental to the industry but will be a major set back  for the work that has been done to  promote electronic identity as  a path to the preservation and even expansion of privacy and civil liberties.

Cheers,
Maxine

Thoughts on Passenger Terminal Expo 2011

Last week I attended the Passenger Terminal Expo in Copenhagen because a) the world of security and facilitation is converging, and b) we received quite a bit of feedback on our findings about eGates in the Global ePassport and eVisa Industry Report published last year. I wanted to see for myself what the current issues are in an industry focused on passenger processes and experiences, who the industry players are, and how they tackle opportunities. Read the rest of this entry »

Who’s coming AND going?

Flight of Brockton suspect documents US security gap – The Boston Globe.

According to this report in the Boston Globe, a 40 year old foreign national from Ecuador used the passport of a 26 year old from the same country to board a plane in Boston shortly after murdering a woman and her child.

The US is so obsessed with security that we have introduced full body scans and yet somehow our security is not sophisticated enough to notice someone traveling on a passport when they don’t even really resemble person to whom the passport was issued.

Now, I would wager – and I am definitely am not a gambler – that any of the top 10 commercial facial recognition engines would have easily determined that the person in the photo was not the person going through the security line. And for a fraction of the billions invested post 9/11 in airport security.

Cheers,
max