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Government Security, Policy

UK unveils biometric standards for ID cards

By James Smith | 22 September 2005

Some of these standards will be used for the recording of biometric data on British passports - and on United Kingdom ID cards if the government’s proposals are approved, the BSI said. BSI is the national business standards body in the United Kingdom.

The standards applies to access control and identification systems, for example, information stored on smart cards, as well as the storage of biometric identification data in corporate databases.

The BSI said the standards are essential for those concerned with government contracts and procurement, and will be of interest to any organisation implementing strong identity management and access management.

“These four standards are the first, and probably the most important, of the biometric data block standards to be produced,” said a spokesman for the BSI.

Use of biometrics by the public sector must conform to these international biometrics standards, the government has specified. Use of the standards should ensure that one vendor’s equipment will produce a biometric data block in a format that can be compared directly with data produced by another vendor’s equipment.

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