Arnon Harel
Direct link to this page: https://www.hayadan.org.il/biomertic051203.html
At the end of last week, the Knesset published a public tender for the establishment of a central access control system based on the biometric technology of fingerprints. This tender is extensive in scope and for the first time combines access control to computers and physical access control to gates and doors as well as to central systems such as attendance clocks, canteen purchases and equipment loan warehouse.
According to the tender, hundreds of permanent residents of the Mishkan will be equipped with a portable personal biometric reader, the size of a keychain, with which they will be able to securely access their desktop computers as well as their laptops as well as use it to sign a digital signature. In addition to this, the hundreds of doors in the Knesset will be equipped with small biometric readers and several dozen main gates and central facilities with medium and large biometric readers, in all of which the person passing through will be identified by their fingerprint. All of these will be integrated into one central management and supervision system.
Among the variety of existing biometric technologies, the Knesset chose that of the fingerprint and even decided to implement the system with an automatic identification approach, without the need for a personal card or a secret number.
The tender requirements, which were written with the help of a consulting firm, are particularly strict and in most cases were defined as threshold requirements and a supplier who wishes to submit his bid must meet all of them without exception. The method of implementing the system as defined is complex and demanding and it is not clear if there is any single supplier in Israel that meets the tender requirements in full, just as it is not clear at all if the technology available today in the world provides a complete answer to the performance requirements defined for the system.
The Knesset of Israel, according to this tender, will be the first state body to be equipped with a comprehensive access control system based entirely on biometric technology whose purpose is to ensure that only the authentic person can access the computer or door to which he is authorized.
This system, once established, will join the growing trend of the penetration of biometric technologies into our lives. It will be mentioned that last week the American Embassy in Tel Aviv announced that every Israeli applying for a visa to visit the USA will be asked to provide two fingerprints and a digital facial image, and the Ministry of the Interior is currently considering incorporating biometric identifiers into the new identity cards that will be issued.
* The author is the CEO of Nezar Management and Information Systems
The biometrics expert
https://www.hayadan.org.il/BuildaGate4/general2/data_card.php?Cat=~~~703931006~~~143&SiteName=hayadan
