Terrorists trigger identity switch

Digital thumb prints, iris, palm or face scans could be key forms of identification on a New Zealander's passport within a few years. PETER GRIFFIN reports.

New Zealanders heading for the United States may have to carry passports containing biometric information about themselves if counter-terrorism legislation before the US Congress is passed.

Congress is considering the Enhanced Border Security and Visa Entry Reform Act of 2001, legislation aimed at beefing up border security in the wake of September 11.

The act would require "visa-waiver" countries - of which New Zealand is one - "to certify by October 26, 2003, that it has a programme for Machine-readable passports that are tamper-proof and contain biometric identifiers".

Biometrics identify individuals using biological traits that can be stored electronically and shared with border control and law enforcement authorities globally. They can range from digital, handwritten signatures to digital thumb prints, and iris, palm or face scans.

The act, which won the support of the House of Representatives in December and is before the Senate Committee on the Judiciary, follows the passing of the Anti-terrorism Bill - hastily signed off by President George Bush last October.

While the legislation is unlikely to receive as sympathetic a reception as the Anti-terrorism Bill, which was passed by a margin of 96 to 1, sufficient support in Congress could see biometrics identification introduced - and New Zealand conform.

Locally, the Government has been laying the groundwork for the introduction of biometrics independently of the act's progress. The New Zealand Customs Service has been exploring the issue with a couple of international bodies, according to spokesman Paul Campbell.

Customs saw most potential in "one to many" biometric systems that would scan the faces of people passing through airports, looking for known criminals or terrorists.

Such technology is being tested in Sydney Airport, and transtasman trials will take place this year.

"We see it more as identifying risk and speeding up the bona fide traveller process," Campbell said. "At the moment, the human solution is much more robust for the bulk of passengers."

The computer system used by customs could already handle biometric messaging, and a change of middleware would allow biometrics to be processed.

Last October, the New Zealand Passport Office, with the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO), publicly sought technical and pricing information for "facial, finger and iris biometric technologies and new concepts that may be used in the travel document issuance process or to link travel documents to their rightful owners".

The appeal, repeated in other countries, attracted responses from 80 vendors internationally, 29 of which demonstrated their technology at an ICAO event in Montreal.

A Department of Internal Affairs spokesman said the Government would wait for the final shape of the US legislation before developing its position on biometrics.

No work had been done on biometric identifiers, but New Zealand passports had been machine readable and tamper-proof since 1992.

He declined to say whether the department used biometrics in its dealings with people.

While the legislation could have serious implications for US-bound passport holders, some think the act is unlikely to be rubber-stamped as it stands.

"I can't see it passing in its current form. The window for ill-conceived panic legislation passed some time ago," says Peter Gutmann, a security expert at the University of Auckland.

The September 11 terrorists had worked within the system so biometrics would not have stopped them, he said. The only people who would benefit would be biometrics vendors.

The act also seeks to tighten border controls, establish a "Terrorist lookout committee" in each region where there is a US consular post and require visa-waiver countries to undertake "timely reporting to the US of its stolen blank passports".

Commercial aircraft or vessels arriving at or leaving the US would provide immigration officers with specified passenger and crew information, and an "interoperable law enforcement and intelligence data system" with name-matching and linguistics capabilities would be established.

Enhanced Border Security and Visa Entry Reform Act of 2001