By Nick Heath, 15 January 2008 16:17
NEWS
UK police are in talks with the FBI about an international biometric database to track down the world's most wanted criminals and terrorists.
silicon.com's A to Z of Biometrics
Click on the links below to find out everything you'll need to know about biometric security.
A is for Accuracy
B is for Behavioural biometric
C is for Cash machine
D is for Database
E is for Ear
F is for Facial recognition
G is for Gummi bears
H is for Hand geometry
I is for Iris
J is for Juan Vucetich
K is for Keystroke dynamics
L is for Liveness testing
M is for Mobile phones
N is for Network security
O is for Oxford
P is for Palm
Q is for Queues
R is for Registration
S is for Signature verification
T is for Twins
U is for Universality
V is for Voice verification
W is for Walk
X is for X-ray
Y is for Young
Z is for Zurich Airport
The so-called "server in the sky" database would share biometric data, such as fingerprints and iris scans, of criminals internationally.
The FBI suggested the database at a meeting of five countries - Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the UK and the US - in the International Information Consortium technology group.
The UK's National Policing Improvement Agency (NPIA) said it was aware of the proposal and that any such system could be linked into existing law enforcement databases such as Ident1, the UK repository of more than seven million pieces of biometric data from crime scenes - although there are no formal plans at the moment.
A spokesman for the NPIA said: "The FBI are proposing this and the proposals are being discussed by the International Information Consortium group but these are initial discussions, there are no agreements."
The Home Office also confirmed it was aware of the server in the sky as one of a "wide range of initiatives we are constantly looking at to improve our investigative capabilities".
US defence company Northrop Grumman, which built the Ident1 system, also confirmed it had spoken to the FBI about server in the sky.
The announcement of the server in the sky proposals follows the news earlier this week that the UK has completed a system to check the fingerprints of every visa applicant.
No-one at the FBI was available for comment.
Comments
There are 3 comments. Join the discussion
1. Roger Huffadine
we could be witnessing the biggest technological screw up in the history of humanity.
Here is a clue - good terrorists, like good spies are unknown to security forces & will never be known to security forces.
You can populate the whole universe with a computer [why not call it "Marvin"] but you still won't catch the best of the baddies and those are the ones that will get you.
2. Karen Challinor
and of course this will only be used to hold details of criminals ....or their families ....or those who support criminals in some way by say providing shelter or sustenance ....even unknowingly .....and of course those suspected of being in any of the above categories
so thats pretty much everyone who doesn't actually have access to the database then
plus a few who do
sounds like a force for good
yeah right
3. Karen Challinor
...oh and that dripping noise you can hear
thats saliva dripping from the jowls of the politicians who see a method of storing data for the ID card scheme thats far cheaper than any proposed, all they have to do is make everyone in the uk eligible for inclusion in a criminal database