Executive summary
Security in airports is an important aspect that should be undertaken. Airports are a sensitive place where people from other countries get and leave the country. It is also a place where threats and security can be compromised. Having important security vigilance is a strategy that should be undertaken in order to have safer countries. Queensland Government should put this in place. It is important to have strategies that will ensure that the Security is a major issue in organizations today. . In today’s entrepreneurial world organizations have adopted different applications that require different level of security assessments and security measures. The organization should consider the fact that a security risk will vary between the external and internal applications hence these applications must be carefully reviewed in order to determine the prospective risks and ways of pre cautioning against the risk. Security monitoring activities are a major element in the organizations security plan in order to prevent loss as a result of the security threats. Organizations have to consider the ways in which the threats compromise data and information in order to determine the most effective monitoring activities. Internal threats occur within the organization by people having access to data and information in the organization. Such threats include sabotage, errors and omissions, hacking, unauthorized access among others which jeopardizes accuracy, confidentiality and d integrity of data and information. Security against these threats could be achieved through event security monitoring and state security monitoring. This paper will focus on the enhancements that can be undertaken in Brisbane Airport. This will ensure a
Introduction
Security is an important aspect of many organizations today. With computer networks expanding and computing accessible to many, there has been a need to take information assets and their security important. It is no longer only important to have strong passwords and firewalls in an organization alone, there is a need to ensure that the people accessing applications are authorized to do so. Biometrics technology, if implemented well, promises to curb security in applications(Clarke, 2003a). This research paper will assess the impact that thus security measure has in airports and particularly Brisbane international airport. Event security monitoring involves taking records of information that entails activities and analyze information that has been recorded to ensure they are correct; an organization must therefore take into consideration the applications to be used and the minimum level of security that can be used which will still enable full functionality. These activities should focus on several perspectives of the applications or systems in place that is, basing on the perspective of the operating system, from the perspective of the network operating procedures, from the view of application processing and also the view of database management system(Clarke, n.d.). The organization should never operate under the assumption that there will be no adverse events or actions. There has therefore been a need to make sure those new methods of curbing the security of security applications. One area that threats and attacks can bear detrimental impact is in airports. A better security implementation that can be implemented here is the use of biometrics in security applications that are used in airports; this paper will look at how biometrics can be implemented insecurity applications in airports(Haas, 2004).
The researcher anticipates that the findings of the study will provide useful information for policy makers and planners so as to identify the impact that biometrics technology has in security applications in airports. This will enhance their ability to ensure the airports and immigration departments remain secure through accurate and effective use security measures like biometrics. The findings of this study will inform the security managers at Brisbane Airport on how best they are using biometrics as a tool for gaining secure working environment. The study is further expected to contribute to the building of knowledge reserve for future researchers as well as provide a reference point for future scholars(Schneier, 2001).
There will be a detailed critical analysis of the use of biometrics in airports and especially in immigration departments. The analysis will help understand better the impact and the use of biometrics in immigration departments. There will also be a literature review which will help to understand the research that has been done in the past in security. The report will also be a report on the advantages and the challenges that will be experienced when implementing the technology. The research will also give the advantages of biometrics compared to other security measures that are implemented. There will also be a structured analysis of the various methods that will be used to undertake the security implementation of the biometrics integration(Clarke, 2003b).
Weaknesses of the current system
The current system has some limitations in the current undertakings. One of the weaknesses of the current system is that there is lack of authentication of the people who get in and out of the airport. This is something that should be implemented in Brisbane Airport. There is lack of efficiency of the operations at Brisbane airport. The security of the airport has remained untouched for a long time. The technology that is used to scan passenger bags has not been improved in any way(Adey, 2002). This is something that should be improved in airport in order to increase and enhance security. There are failures which have been evident in the process of passenger operations and processes in the airports. For a long time, security staff and officials have not been able to detect many items which have been banned in the past. This is because of use of poor scanning technology. After the terrorist attack on September 11 2001, the security of airports was improved and new mechanisms were introduced in nearly all airports. This is seen in the way Brisbane airport also introduced mechanism that would be used to manage the security process of the airports. The new processes of security in Brisbane Airport introduced longer waiting time. With these inefficiencies, with the introduction of these mechanisms, the turn up in airport use declined. Passengers avoided the hassle of the use of airports and preferred to use the road. This introduced losses in the air travel industry.
This paper will propose a solution to the weak areas of the airport management. The technology that will be used in this solution is to integrate the use of biometrics technology. This is a technology that enhances efficiency and also improves security of Brisbane Airport. This technology comes due to the fact that human beings have some characteristics like retinal patterns, gait and fingerprints. These features are unique from one person to another. They can be used to enhance security and increase efficiency in Brisbane Airport. This has been seen to be working in other airports around the world(Pankanti, Bolle, & Jain, 2000).
Possible services and features
Biometrics use is an aspect that brings features that are useful in the verification process. The time that is taken to verify passengers has been an issue for most passengers. The solutions have been found with the use of a biometric system. With this technology, there is room for improvement. The current trend that is used in this technology is that of fingerprints in the process of scanning. This trend will be improved in future with the introduction and the use of iris in the scanning process. This new feature will make scanning limited to three forms. The problem with this technology is that the passenger has to stand still in order for the scanning to take place. The future improvement that can be used in this technology is that of “Biometrics in motion”. This is a future improvement of the system. This will ensure that the passenger can walk through an iris scanner. The scanning process will be faster and the verification process will be faster and efficient(Clarke, 2003a).
Another future improvement of this technology is that of using faster and reliable servers that will process scans faster. The future servers will be those of NEUROtechnology which has been said to be in a position to scan up to 200 million scans per second. This will improve the scan rate of the biometrics system.
This will also reduce the cost of airport operations. This is evident in the way costs will be reduced in the aspect that wages that have initially been used to hire staff in the airport will be reduced. The passenger verification process will be reduced with the introduction of the biometrics system(Clarke, n.d.).
Proposed framework
The proposal made in this paper will be the use of biometrics in Brisbane Airport. The working of a biometrics system is due to the four components that it has. The four components include a sensor, feature extractor, database that is used for enrollment, and a matcher. The sensor can be implemented in new different forms. The sensor that is used in fingerprint scanning can be installed using a silicon chip and has been integrated with a silicon chip. The silicon chip can be aligned with plates of micro-capacitors. When the passenger passes the finger across the chip, there is a current which is sent to the micro-capacitors. In this process, there is a buildup of charge that is created between the plates and the ridges of the finger. This is the same way that a parallel plate capacitor works. If the charge is lower, then it means that the distance between the plate and the user skin is great(Clarke, n.d.).
The next step in this process is to extract the image and the features which are referred to as minutiae. This minutiae is then converted to binary form which will eventually be used as a skeleton representation of the print that has been obtained. The skeleton will create the flow that is needed and will give the proportional distances between the lines of ridges. The data will then be taken by another algorithm; with this, there will be a vector representation of the minutiae. In the case of an iris sensor, the process of taking in the data and extracting information is much different when compared to that of a fingerprint. The process of recognizing an iris is through getting the textual patterns of an iris of an eye. The technology of the video camera is the one that is used to record the image of the eye. The iris region is one that is focused after removing pupil, eyelid and eye lashes. The information that is extracted from the iris is then converted to strings of bits(Haas, 2004).
The third stage of the biometrics process is referred to as the enrollment stage. This is the stage where the system gets the data from the stage of extraction and then stores this data in a template which represents the data for each individual. If an individual wants the process of verification done, the template is repeatedly undertaken and an algorithm is used to match the data of the template that is stored with the data of the new template(Clarke, n.d.).
Source: (Schneier, 2001)
The matching stage of the system, where there is the use of the algorithm is the last stage. The speed and the accuracy of each matching system will be determined by few factors. One of the factors is the speed of the servers that are used for processing the scans. This is where the database is stored. The second factor is that of determining whether matching is done by negative or positive recognition process.
Hardware and requirements
The installation cost of ten biometrics systems in Brisbane Airport would cost approximately $171000. One of the hardware requirements is a server. The server is used to store the database where the scan templates are stored. A server will cost approximately $105000. Another hardware requirement is that of fingerprint scanner. One fingerprint scanner costs approximately $1000. An iris scanner costs approximately $2000. There is the software that is used to manage the system. The software license cost per server is $36000. There will also be the server racks that will be used to store the servers that will be purchased. There will also be the purchase of computers that will be used in the verification kiosks which will be installed in the airports(Clarke, 2003b).
References
Adey, P. (2002). Secured and Sorted Mobilities: Examples from the Airport. Surveillance & Society. Retrieved from http://library.queensu.ca/ojs/index.php/surveillance-and-society/article/view/3333
Clarke, R. (n.d.). Biometrics in airports how to, and how not to, stop mahommed atta and friends (2003). Retrieved from http://scholar.google.com/scholar?hl=en&q=biometrics+in+airports&btnG=&as_sdt=1%2C5&as_sdtp=#9
Clarke, R. (2003a). Biometrics in Airports: How To, and How Not To, Stop Mahommed Atta and Friends’ Xamax Consultancy Pty Ltd, 23 February 2003. Retrieved from http://scholar.google.com/scholar?hl=en&q=biometrics+in+airports&btnG=&as_sdt=1%2C5&as_sdtp=#8
Clarke, R. (2003b). Biometrics in airports how to, and how not to, stop mahommed atta and friends. Retrieved from http://www.rogerclarke.com/DV/BioAirports.html
Haas, E. (2004). Back to the Future-The Use of Biometrics, Its Impact of Airport Security, and How This Technology Should Be Governed. J. Air L. & Com. Retrieved from http://heinonlinebackup.com/hol-cgi-bin/get_pdf.cgi?handle=hein.journals/jalc69§ion=27
Pankanti, S., Bolle, R., & Jain, A. (2000). Biometrics: The future of identification. Computer. Retrieved from http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/xpls/abs_all.jsp?arnumber=820038
Schneier, B. (2001). Biometrics in Airports. Crypto-Gram Newsletter. Retrieved from http://scholar.google.com/scholar?hl=en&q=biometrics+in+airports&btnG=&as_sdt=1%2C5&as_sdtp=#3
