Raising Electronic Security I.Q.

Access control manufacturers have long known that the weakest link in the use of their systems was the ability to authenticate that the person requesting access was the same as the person linked to the credential presented to the reader. It was plain to anyone that thought much about it that cards, keyfobs and PINs could be lost, stolen, duplicated or forgotten. Up to the recent past, biometric technology seemed the best solution, but inconsistent performance and prohibitive pricing inhibited the integration of biometrics into access control systems.

But a lot has changed: with the help of U.S. and European government agencies and trade associations, protocols and standards have been instituted that allow us to accurately compare the available biometric products. Biometric product manufacturers have made great strides towards making their products more affordable and applicable to physical access control applications.

In theory, the use of biometric readers instead of card or PIN readers increases the quality of information fed into access control systems, enabling more intelligent decisions. And no more worrying that someone will gain access with a stolen or duplicated card. That is why 90 percent of America? nuclear facilities use biometric access control systems.

Sounds great, but . . .?

That? the theory. Now for the reality. Until recently, installing a biometric component to a physical access control system required separate software packages to enroll and manage a database of employees. That means more training, more investment in additional hardware to store and retrieve the database and new wiring and networking devices to get the readers and the database talking to each other. And that was the easy part.

The hard part was achieving throughput comparable with existing card technologies. Employees were used to split-second delays between presenting their cards and the opening of the door or gate, while wait times at biometric access points were considerably higher. The reason for the additional delay was that, unlike card readers that transmit a short sequence of numbers to be checked against a database of sequences in the high-speed controller panel, biometric readers had to transmit a complex template back to the central database because no panels existed that could store the templates. Once the template got back to the central database, it would then have to be compared against the entire database of templates to find a match. Not a problem for law enforcement applications, but not a practical solution for physical access applications where rapid throughput is essential. Ask any airport director how important throughput is.

Putting the pieces together

Biometric technology can be an invaluable part of physical access applications if we can find a way to make it practical. That belief is what motivated AMAG Technology to began evaluating the biometric products for integration into their Symmetry Enterprise system over two years ago. Like you, they looked for products with proven track records and that performed the best against the available standards. They looked for products that were easy to use and represented the best overall values in their categories. They also looked for ways to modify their products to provide packaged biometric solutions, not pieces that you have to sort through and assemble yourself.

The biometric technology that surfaced as the most widely used was hand geometry from Recognition Systems, Inc. (RSI). RSI´s hand geometry technology was already being used in high security environments like the Pentagon, the NSA, the FBI, most nuclear facilities and many educational institutions. The hand geometry technology works by analyzing unique characteristics like finger length and width, surface area of the palm and thickness. The system looks at 31,000 points and takes 90 measurements of characteristics that are distinct from person to person. Although you do have to stick your hand into the reader, the technology compensates by not arousing the privacy and identity fraud concerns that have plagued other biometric technologies.

To merge the hand geometry technology with their AMAG systems, AMAG Technology upgraded their high-end controller panel, the multiNODE™ 2000, to enable it to store hand geometry templates. This dealt with the throughput issue and allowed them to create a "pure" biometric access control system that did not require traditional access control cards. Since that time, the world´s largest RSI hand geometry-enhanced access control system was installed on a AMAG Technology Symmetry Enterprise platform using the multiNODE 2000 panels.

Exploring further options

The next technology they looked at was fingerprint scanning, or fingerscan. This one has attracted the most interest and the most suspicion from the business community and privacy groups. Most people associate fingerprints with running afoul of the law and are concerned that scanned fingerprints could be stolen and used to commit identity fraud. The truth is that none of the fingerscan technologies, except those used for law enforcement purposes, save the actual fingerprint. During enrollment in the system, the fingerprint is scanned for unique features (some claim 1,000 unique points) that are then converted into a digital code that cannot be reverse-engineered to create a fingerprint. Using a digital code rather than a high-resolution picture of a fingerprint also reduced the size of the template. So while the fingerscan template is larger than the hand geometry template, (200+ bytes vs. 9 bytes), the difference in throughput and consumption of network resources is usually negligible.

AMAG Technology´s search for the best fingerscan technology led them to Bioscrypt Inc. because their technology seemed the most able to account for the variables, such as dry skin, scarring or swelling, that render many competitive products ineffective. Bioscrypt´s "capacitive sensing" technology uses skin´s inherent electrical properties to capture a template that is resistant to day-to-day changes in skin condition. Their technology also answers the "Can? someone use someone else? dismembered finger? " question (gross, but people really do ask!) in that dismembered tissue does not have any electrical properties and will not be read by Bioscrypt´s readers.

AMAG Technology took a different approach in integrating Bioscrypt´s fingerscan technology into the Symmetry Enterprise system. Up to now, customers who wanted to run Bioscrypt readers with their existing access control systems have had to set up a separate network and toggle between their access control and biometric database computer screens to manage them. AMAG Technology worked with Bioscrypt to bypass this need by fully integrating their V-Smart™ software application into the Symmetry Enterprise user interface. This integration allows users to enroll, manage and monitor their biometric readers without leaving the Symmetry Enterprise interface.

The AMAG Technology/Bioscrypt system uses a smart card to store the template, thus solving the template management and throughput issues. This eliminates the need for a template database and keeps the template in the possession of its owner, thereby satisfying privacy concerns. The smart card also speeds transaction times, since the template is compared only against the template on the card rather than a database of templates. To date, the world? largest Bioscrypt installation is running on a Symmetry Enterprise platform.

More recently, the Symmetry Enterprise access control platform has been integrated with both iris scan and facial recognition technology. Upon the recommendation of Department of Defense subcontractor Naval Surface Warfare Center (NSWC) Crane, the AMAG Technology Symmetry Enterprise system was integrated with facial recognition technology from Visionics at the Prince George´s County Department of Corrections. This is the only installation of its kind in the country at the moment.

Expanding the range

All of these solutions boost security intelligence at the point when a person comes into contact with our facilities. But what can we do to spot potential threats that are not be related to an access point? For example, what if a suspicious truck parks near the entrance to our building? AMAG Technology? most recent efforts have been directed at enabling the Symmetry Enterprise access control platform to provide the best possible answer to that question.

AMAG Technology has been looking at video surveillance, commonly associated with digital video recording (DVR), for a solution. They have chosen to partner with Loronix Information Systems, Inc., the supplier with the most proven success and the best technology. Their intelligent video surveillance can be configured to account for changes in the environment being surveyed. If changes exceed preconfigured levels, the Loronix system alerts users to the nature of the violation, whether it be a car parking in a highly sensitive area or someone walking away with a laptop computer they are not authorized to take.

AMAG Technology has integrated the Loronix intelligent surveillance application with the Symmetry Enterprise platform to provide another turnkey security solution. This feature adds a literal sense of sight to the Symmetry Enterprise system, enabling powerful investigative and detection capabilities using the best technology available.

AMAG Technology will continue to evaluate and integrate emerging technologies to ensure that you always have easy, reliable access to the electronic security solutions you need to create and maintain the safest, most productive workplaces possible.