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Highflying security biometrics in airports

The escalation of international terrorism has led to the global tightening of airport security, particularly by controlling and monitoring the movement of airport staff, travellers and visitors.

Although ensuring the safety and security of all, these new measures often lead to significant delays at airports and have a costly knock-on effect on international air travel as a whole. The stakeholders - government, airport operators and airlines - are seeking an urgent solution to this problem.

One such solution to detect and counter fraud and the escalation of international terrorism is that of implementing biometrics to secure airport facilities worldwide. Secure identity management (IDM) relies on solutions that can accurately and consistently recognise and confirm the identity of an individual. IDM commences by creating a unique link between an individual and an identification number and biometric characteristic quickly and accurately.

Examples of fingerprint-based biometric IDM solutions include various biometric security solutions ideally suited for integration into airport systems. These provide biometric enrolment, identification and verification modules that are used for the verification of passengers at check-in and boarding points. Such solutions significantly reduce the check-in time of regular travellers who pre-register at the biometric system, and are thus fast-tracked through check-in and immigration. Physical and logical access control completes the array of security measures and makes for an ideal addition to airport security identifying airline and airport personnel.

Another aspect of biometric security is that of immigration and cross-border traffic as regulated by means of visas and passports. International requirements and standards for biometric passports (e-passports) are laid down by organisations such as the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) and the International Standards Organisation (ISO). These standards ensure interoperability of passport technology among member countries, and require the storing of a photographic image and/or biometric data, of an individual in a contactless chip embedded in the passport. Countries with appropriate equipment can verify a traveller's identification by accessing the biometric data contained in the e-passport. Non-member countries simply use the e-passport in the traditional way and manually verify the identity of the passport holder.

South Africa's early adoption of biometrics has positioned it favourably as one of the word's key biometric players. IDtek had been awarded a contract by the Airports Company of South Africa (ACSA) to install its biometric identity control technology in the restricted personnel areas of South Africa's largest airport, OR Thambo International. Sagem's fingerprint biometric technology has been used to authenticate the identity of more than 600 airport employees with access to secure areas of the airport's Air Traffic Navigation Control Department.

The installed biometric technology enforces security and increased physical access control reliability while minimising personnel access to restricted working areas of the airport.

The company has also successfully installed the technology at Nationwide Airlines. By using fingerprint matching, Nationwide has solved the problem of unauthorised access control into their new head offices in Rivonia.

Further afield, one of the world's largest biometric-based airport access control systems is that at Aeroports De Paris (ADP). This system utilises just under 1000 MorphoAccess fingerprint readers to manage over 90 000 employees, conducting over 30 000 transactions per day, and has been in use since 2003.

Nationwide is excited about how biometric technology is now being used the world over in all sorts of areas of air travel. One example includes using the technology to ensure that the correct passengers board their assigned flights. At check-in the passenger's fingerprint is enrolled and uniquely linked to their boarding pass. At the boarding gate the passenger's fingerprint is matched against the one enrolled at check-in. Such systems also allow for checking passengers fingerprints against a terrorist watch list or other national databases, according to the specific country's regulations and policies.

In addition to first-class security measures, biometric systems are in part an extension of airlines and airports' desire to smooth the passenger's experience. Biometrics is fast becoming an integral part of the airline industry's flying plans to make air travel as safe, efficient and comfortable as possible.

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