BioCatch VP touts behavioral biometrics as wave of the future

Behavioral biometrics is a breakthrough cybersecurity technology that identifies people by how they do what they do, rather than by their physical characteristics, what they know, or by the authentication technology they possess.

Behavioral biometrics is defined as the measurement and analysis of human activity patterns. Historically, these have included keystroke patterns, gait, and handwritten signatures. However, today’s advanced behavioral biometric techniques now capture a wider array of human interactions between a device and an application, such as hand-eye coordination, pressure, hand tremors, navigation, scrolling and other finger movements.

BioCatch’s behavioral biometrics-based authentication technology analyzes the way people interact with online applications or devices. BioCatch has positioned itself as a market leader, with a solution designed to reduce transaction friction, decrease fraud and associated cyber threats, and provide quantifiable business value. The firm’s enterprise-grade solution is used by major banks and e-commerce sites worldwide, and currently monitors over four billion transactions per month, in order to provide measurable returns on investment.

“It is not enough to rely on static identification verification when opening an account or conducting a credit check,” said Frances Zalazny, Vice President of Marketing at BioCatch, in an exclusive interview with BiometricUpdate.com. “Relying on static data makes organizations susceptible to social engineering attacks.”

Social engineering is an attack vector that relies heavily on human interaction and often involves tricking people into breaking normal security procedures. Social engineers target their victims utilizing tactics that include “phishing” and “remote access trojans”.

Phishing is the attempt to obtain sensitive information such as usernames, passwords, and credit card details, often for malicious reasons, by criminals disguising themselves as a trustworthy entities within an electronic communication. A remote access trojan (RAT) is a malware program which includes a back door to allow criminals to take control over a user’s target computer. RATs are unintentionally downloaded through user-requested programs, such as games, or through e-mail attachments.

Due to a veritable explosion in such attacks over the past 10 years, BioCatch has been offering its integrated behavioral biometrics solutions to banks and retailers to successfully detect and deter criminal behavior, thereby preventing major financial loss.

Zalazny notes that since 2008, more than nine billion records have been breached or stolen. And according to figures published in Gemalto’s Breach Level Index Report for 2016, nearly 1.4 billion data records were stolen by hackers or lost in the past year.

Notable examples of data breaches abound, including the most recent Equifax data theft incident that compromised over 145.5 million customers in the United States, UK and Canada. According to the credit bureau itself, criminals exploited a Web site application vulnerability to gain access to certain files. Based on Equifax’s own investigation, the unauthorized access occurred from mid-May through July 2017. The company has found no evidence of unauthorized activity on Equifax’s core consumer or commercial credit reporting databases. Despite the fact that Equifax says the data in its own databases may not be manipulated, the stolen data can theoretically be used to establish fake accounts.

The notion of “synthetic identities” refers to the creation of fake accounts or identities based on stolen and fictitious personal data, such as the combination of a fake name and physical address with a real social security number. With the Equifax breach, the potential for an explosion of “synthetic identities” is highly probable.

“Social engineering and account takeover is the fastest growing type of threat,” said Zalazny. “Surprisingly, we found that nearly 100 percent of this type of fraud happens after authentication has been achieved where a PIN, password or token is used. It is however fortunate that our behavioral biometrics solutions can address this type of attack.”

Zalazny notes that with BioCatch running in the background, retailers and banks can analyze, in detail, the methods in which people interact with online applications or devices. The approach is passive, and analyzes physical, behavioral and cognitive attributes in real-time, while injecting invisible challenges to ensure the veracity of the user.

BioCatch’s platform can thus undertake real-time risk assessments to determine whether a user is navigating an online form at an unnatural rate of rapid speed or taking too long to enter intuitive information. Analysis of such behavior allows the firm to develop a “risk score” which informs its banking and retail customers as to the legitimacy of a user and transaction.

Increasingly, fraudsters are remotely taking over a bona fide user’s logged-in session, after the user has appropriately and correctly authenticated themselves, with no malware involved. Similarly, because by definition they usurp a user’s login and device credentials, traditional verification and network security tools are not effective in recognizing them.

“With account takeover one of the most intractable cybersecurity challenges that enterprises are facing today and a wide variety of fraud emerging, including malware, remote access, phishing, and new account activation based on stolen data, we are pleased that we can provide a solution that facilitates risk-based authentication,” said Zalazny.

BioCatch’s passive approach has been successful in preventing identity theft and account takeover in cases of phone fraud, where fraudsters have directly called customers to trick them into revealing their account information. BioCatch’s systems have been so attuned that they have caught these fraudsters in the act, allowing financial institutions to contact their customers in real-time while their accounts are actively being compromised.

“Because traditional fraud prevention methods have proven to have limited effect, we expect continued growth in behavioral biometrics,” stated Zalazny. As BiometricUpdate.com has previously reported, the firm recently partnered with LexisNexis Risk Solutions and HoneyTek Systems to provide them respectively with fraud protection services.

Zalazny also noted users of BioCatch’s solution can also improve their customers’ experience by minimizing false alarms and providing frictionless continuous authentication throughout a session, from login to logout. With one in four legitimate transactions being denied due to extraneous factors, BioCatch’s technology can examine transaction legitimacy, thereby increasing a firm’s revenue potential. BioCatch’s VP however did emphasize that the firm undertakes an assessment of risk, and it is up to its banking and retailer customers to determine how to act upon those risk assessments.

Ref:http://www.biometricupdate.com/201710/biocatch-vp-touts-behavioral-biometrics-as-wave-of-the-future

Aadhaar Card: How To Lock, Unlock Biometric Details

Did you know you can actually lock the biometrics-related information associated with your Aadhaar card? The UIDAI or Unique Identification Authority of India, the issuer of the 12-digit identity number – also known as the Unique Identity Number or UID, has come out with a set of instructions on how you can lock this information. Biometrics are fingerprints and iris data used for Aadhaar authentication. Sharing the various steps in the biometrics locking process in a video shared on Twitter, the UIDAI said: “If you do not intend to use your biometrics in near future, you can lock your biometrics.” This can be done using a tool given on the UIDAI website – uidai.gov.in.

The Aadhaar Biometric locking system enables users to lock and temporarily unlock their biometrics. “This is to protect privacy and confidentiality of resident’s biometrics Data,” the UIDAI added on its website. Once locked, the use of biometrics for authentication is restricted against any attempt to authenticate the it, “thus preventing potential misuse”, according to the UIDAI.

How to lock your Aadhaar card biometrics:

Once you are on the UIDAI website, find and click on the ‘Lock/Unlock Biometrics’ link under the Aadhaar Services section. This link leads to a separate page titled Lock/Unlock Biometrics’.

An OTP or One-Time Password for Login will be sent to your registered mobile number, according to the UIDAI website.

Enter the OTP received on your registered mobile number in the respective field and click ‘Login’. “Registered Mobile Number is essential to avail this service. In case your mobile number is not registered with Aadhaar, visit the nearest Enrolment Centre/Mobile Update End Point,” the UIDAI said separately on its website.

Once logged in, enter the security code once again and click on ‘Enable’. Your biometrics will now be locked. “You would not be able to use Aadhaar-based biometric authentication for any service unless you ‘Unlock’ your biometrics,” the UIDAI portal added.

At the end of the process of enabling the lock, the UIDAI online tool displays the message: “Congratulation! Your Biometrics is locked. You will not be able to authenticate by using your fingerprint or iris. You can unlock biometrics temporarily for any authentication requirements. You can also disable the Locked Biometrics But before that you will be required to login using your Aadhaar.”

How to disable Aadhaar card biometric lock

For unlocking your biometrics, first login using the OTP-based method explained earlier.

Once logged in, enter the security code and then click on ‘Disable’ button on the next page to disable the biometric lock, according to the UIDAI website. Once the lock is enabled, the user can either unlock it (which is temporary) or disable the locking system, it noted.

Users of the biometrics locking system are cautioned to use this facility with care to prevent denial of authentication services, the UIDAI added.

Ref: https://www.ndtv.com/business/aadhaar-card-how-to-lock-unlock-biometric-details-1761232

CCTV cameras to enter college classrooms

Degree students will be watched over not just by their teachers in the classroom. In a move that has irked students, all colleges — government, aided and unaided — have been asked to install CCTV cameras in the classrooms within a month.

In a circular issued on Friday, M.N. Ajay Nagabhushan, Commissioner, Department of Collegiate Education (DCE), has said that the decision was taken “in the interest of students’ safety” based on the recommendations of the State Women’s Commission. He said all college managements should treat this on “priority basis” and procure CCTV cameras by following the norms in the Karnataka Transparency in Public Procurement (KTTP) Act 1999.

Chairperson of the Karnataka State Commission for Women Nagalakshmi Bai said the recommendation was made to the DCE keeping in mind the safety of girl students. “The department should also specify the technical details of the camera. In many instances, we have seen owing to the poor quality of cameras, the footage is extremely blurred,” she said.

Too much surveillance?

But the move has not gone down well with the students, even those in all-girls’ colleges. “Safety, of course, is a matter of concern. But installing cameras in classrooms is no solution. This will curb the activities in the classroom and our surveillance will increase. Teachers will use the camera to monitor other activities, which affect our privacy,” said a student.

Student organisations said this was “too much” surveillance and a measure to “control” the students. “If there are complaints that girl students are being harassed, the colleges need to do much more than merely installing CCTV cameras. They need to sensitise students and improve the academic atmosphere,” said Ravinandan B.B., vice-president of All India Democratic Students Organisation (AIDSO).

However, college managements said they would obey the order. H.C. Ramanna, secretary of the Karnataka Government College Teachers’ Association, said, “Besides monitoring safety and security of students, this will also help us monitor the activity of mischievous students and keep an eye on the lecturer’s attendance,” he said. But he did make a suggestion: of taking students’ opinion before making such decisions.

A grey area in schools

Installation of CCTV cameras in school classrooms has been a grey area. While a large number of private schools have installed them in classrooms based on police guidelines, the Comprehensive Child Protection Policy (CPP), however, does not advocate CCTV cameras in classrooms. Most experts involved in drafting the CCP felt that having CCTV cameras in classrooms would create too much of “vigilance”.

Ref:http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/karnataka/cctv-cameras-to-enter-college-classrooms/article19738373.ece

No one has taken up the offer of free CCTV cameras from the government

IN A BID to stamp out crime and help policing, the government pledged €1 million earlier this year to help communities install CCTV in at risk areas.

However, six months on, no applications have been approved by the Department of Justice.

To boost crime prevention, the Partnership of Government commits to supporting investment in CCTV at key locations along the road network and in urban centres.

The installment of cameras was also part of a plan to tackle the persisting problem of illegal dumping.

In April 2017, the then-Minister for Justice Frances Fitzgerald announced the CCTV scheme would run for three years with funding of €1 million being made available each year.

Local organisations could apply to the department to help meet the costs associated with installing CCTV systems, with the maximum grant available standing at €40,000.

A statement on the grant scheme said:

However, to date, no community or organisation has been successful in their application.

Justice Minister Charlie Flanagan acknowledged that €1 million was secured in Budget 2017 for the purposes of the scheme, adding that it is envisaged that a similar amount will be made available in 2018 and 2019.

He said since the introduction of grant, just five applications have been received. However, no grant aid has been handed over to date.

Due to these applications being incomplete, they were returned to the applicants concerned to enable them to provide the information necessary to qualify for grant-aid, explained the minister.

Fianna Fáil TD for Cavan-Monaghan Brendan Smith urged community groups to apply to the Department of Justice for the new grant aid scheme for CCTV.

““Community groups, particularly those in rural areas, need to be conscious of security measures.  However, for many, installing CCTV would be a very expensive measure and has been overlooked.  This scheme will provide organisations with funding to cover up to 60% of the cost of a CCTV system, with a maximum grant of €40,000 available,” he said.

The minister said guidance is available to help local groups in both rural and urban areas to apply for this important funding.

However, Smith said he believed groups are simply not aware of the programme.

“CCTV is a very effective means of deterring crime, as well as providing evidence in cases of theft or vandalism.

“I would like to see a more proactive information campaign undertaken by the department,” he added.

Flanagan said he is keen to ensure that groups take full advantage of the availability of the funding.

“I am very conscious of the value that communities, especially rural communities, place on CCTV as a means of deterring crime and assisting in the detection of offenders and I would encourage interested groups to avail of the Scheme,” he added.

Ref: http://www.thejournal.ie/cctv-grants-3631650-Oct2017/

cctv cameras

Chubb Systems has launched a television out station (TVOS), an all-weather traffic monitoring CCTV camera system that it says delivers the highest quality images demanded by the smart motorways of the future.

The company says new TVOS also meets the specific technical specifications required by Highways England for its Road Investment Strategy.

The TVOS unit delivers images in ultra-low and zero light conditions, thanks to its infrared array meaning that even in the toughest lighting conditions, the camera provides regional control centres (RCCs) what it says are exceptional images to monitor traffic flow and motorway incidents as well as increase safety for the Highways’ workforce.

“With emphasis being placed on providing improved technology to the UK’s highways, we can deliver a product and service that matches expectations and offers excellent value for money,” said Dave Dunnagan, sales director, Chubb Systems.

The unit is comprised of three key elements: a long-range, high-resolution camera with optical zoom and back light compensation; an infrared array with 500m range; and a television base unit (TVBU). Added benefits of the unit include physical and cyber security accreditation and a remote maintenance service for software upgrades and alterations.

In a statement the company adds that the TVBU also serves as the outstation element in the Highways England CCTV network – it connects the relevant cameras to the National Roads Telecommunication System that itself connects back to relevant RCCs, where remote monitoring operatives are located.

Ref: http://smarthighways.net/chubb-launches-new-camera-system-for-smart-motorways/

 

Privacy concerns over Yes campaign vote’s bulk SMS

The bulk SMS sent in favour of same-sex marriage has sparked calls for changes to privacy regulations, after hundreds of thousands of Australians were bom­barded with text messages with­out their permission.

Coalition MPs who support traditional marriage yesterday questioned whether the Yes campaign had complied with political authorisation requirements and complained that messages had been sent to minors without parents’ consent.

The tactic also triggered calls to reform the rules governing mass communication with experts suggesting the messages could have cost as little as 2c each, with the Yes camp unable to confirm how many were actually sent.

Federal minister Concetta Fierravanti-Wells told The Australian the decision to send mass text messages would “not have been a cheap exercise” and that it “just goes to show how cashed up the Yes campaign is”.

“There is a legitimate question about the authorisation,” she said. “In terms of sending it to minors, I think there are legitimate concerns about that.”

Finance Minister and acting Special Minister of State Mathias Cormann told The Australian the text message met all legal requirements. “My advice from the Electoral Commissioner Tom Rogers is that the relevant messages were duly authorised consistent with all the relevant legal requirements,” he said.

Former prime minister Tony Abbott questioned whether the Yes campaign had engaged in the “harvesting of people’s private mobile phone numbers” and said voters did not like being “lectured by the politically correct establishment”.

The Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) received hundreds of complaints about the text messages but noted the use of bulk SMS messages did not represent a breach of either the Do Not Call Register Act or the Spam Act because the texts did not have a “commercial purpose”.

“Communications about political matters do not usually include a commercial element,” ACMA said in a statement.

The Yes campaign yesterday denied it had breached any rules governing mass communications and attacked the use of robocalls by their opponents, with spokesman Clint ­McGilvray ­saying a computer had randomly generated the numbers that the message was sent to.

“It’s a computer-generated SMS message to encourage people to get out and vote,’’ said Mr McGilvray from Equity Campaign. “It’s a one-off. We have no knowledge of who the messages were sent to. We haven’t bought a data base.’

Carl Krumins, chief executive of SMSGlobal which runs a service offering bulk SMS services to businesses, said he believed more mass communications, excluding emergency alerts, should be “subject to the Spam Act”, which requires an option to unsubscribe and consent to receive.

“The process for sending out the bulk SMS, in the thousands or even millions, is actually quite simple. The Marriage Equality Party used an SMS gateway, much like ours, to distribute the text messages on mass. To do this, they would have uploaded their data and receivers’ details into the system,” Mr Krumins said. “It’s then as easy as crafting the content and hitting send.”

Parents across the nation also told The Australian they were concerned about their children — who some on the Yes side have suggested should be shielded from the political campaign — receiving unwarranted text messages.

Perth father Glenn Rankine said his 16-year-old son had ­received the text on Saturday. “My concern is he was only 16. We’ve explained what’s going on to him so he knows if he ever feels uncomfortable he can ignore it, and that’s what he’s done,” he said.

Melissa Coffey, from southwest Victoria, was angered when her 15-year-old received the text at the weekend. “My daughter got the text and she is 15. She was pretty nonplussed about it but I still wasn’t impressed,” Ms Coffey said.

The Office of the Australian ­Information Commission said the texts did not appear to breach privacy rules because the SMS message was sent by using “random computer-generated mobile numbers, not from collected numbers”.

The Yes campaign was late yesterday saying its text messages had resulted in about 170,000 people clicking through to their website, while about another 20,000 had signed up to volunteer as a result.

Australian Christian Lobby managing director Lyle Shelton argued that people “felt like their privacy had been invaded” and confirmed that his “No-voting daughter received one”.

Ref:http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/privacy-concerns-over-yes-votes-bulk-sms/news-story/3747b7e7d88724136f64f594c4f65ce1

Check Out Who Is Sending This LM-XXXX And DM-XXXX Kinds Of Messages To Your Mobile Number

There are times when our mobile phones get flooded with the random messages from the usernames with prefixes like DM, LM, BT, AA and etc. Some look legit, while others-fake. However, one must understand that there’s a theory behind this bulk messages, they are certain meanings according to their prefixes, which actually are gateways, the break down of the prefixes has a certain meaning which we will acknowledge below.

ow, coming to context, if you have a Mobile number in India and more particularly if you have registered for mobile banking you must be receiving SMS Messages from Short codes like TD-KVBANK, BX-CANBAN, LM-AxisBk, DM-HDFCBK, LM-UnionB, well, it is clear with the suffixes, they’re from Banks, but, how about the prefixes?

Or else, if your messages are from LM-HATHWAY, TD-Google, MM-FACEBK. It is once again clear that they are from the Service Providers, Social Networking sites, Companies, and many other recognized organizations. But all again, what the heck is this LM, MM, BT, TA, AD, ID, AT, VK…etc.?

Now, according to the sources, these SMSs originates from a Bulk SMS provider, the new TRAI regulation insisted bulk SMS providers restrict the ‘Sender ID’ to the minimum character size of six.

And, coming to the details of prefix, according to the old TRAI norms, these SMS messages originate from a Bulk SMS provider where they used minimum 9 digit Alpha-Numeric characters as ‘Sender’. But there were some security risks in this method.

They can give a phone number as ‘Sender’ & it appears as that person at the recipient end. Basically, there was a chance to send SMS Messages by any other different person or fake identity with the same number to fool someone, and that is what we call spam.

In order to resist customers from falling prey to these providers, the TRAI insisted every Bulk SMS provider in hyderabad to use Shortcode structure as follows, Two Character must be defined by the gateway service provider and the sender can use Six characters to identify them and both should be separated by a hyphen (-).

Every Gateway has its own meaning.

1. The first character to identify who they are (Service Provider Code).

2. The second one to identify where they are located (Origin Code).

Ref:http://allindiaroundup.com/general/lx-xxxx-and-dm-xxxx-types-of-messages-to-mobile-reason/

Technavio report forecasts global biometrics market in education to grow 26% CAGR from 2017-2021

Technavio has released a new report that forecasts that the global biometrics market in the education sector to grow at a CAGR of more than 26 percent during the forecast 2017-2021.

In the report, “Global Biometrics Market in Education Sector 2017-2021”, Technavio covers the market outlook and growth prospects of the global biometrics market in the education sector for 2017-2021.

Technavio further segments the market into three types, including fingerprinting technology, iris recognition technology, and facial recognition technology.

Fingerprinting technology was found to have the highest market share of the three with more than 67 percent in 2016.

“The emergence of multimodal biometrics is another factor increasing the use of biometrics in the education sector,” Jhansi Mary, a lead education technology research expert from Technavio. “The incorporation of multimodal biometrics will make it difficult for miscreants to access information of institutions or student, as this feature recognizes artificial and original sample. The use of single sign-ons and multifactor authentication in biometrics provides better security to students in institutions.”

Technavio’s research analysts segment the global biometrics market in the education sector into the regions of APAC, North America, Europe, and ROW (rest of the world).

Educational institutions are investing in biometrics solutions to improve the overall infrastructure. In developed economies in the APAC region, such as in Singapore and Japan, the demand for biometrics systems is already prevalent owing to the stable digital infrastructure.

In India and China, Technavio analysts found that rising privatization of education will result in higher investment to improve the quality of the learning environment in these countries.

All these developments will ensure significant revenue potential for vendors that design and develop biometrics solutions for the education market, the report said.

The necessity to provide greater security and safety for students in the K-12 and higher education segments will drive the growth of the biometrics market in North America.

Meanwhile, in the higher education segment, biometrics is extensively used to reduce the rate of truancy among students.

“Many school districts in the US have included biometrics solutions in their annual budgetary expenditure, which indicates the potential market vendors,” Jhansi said. “Also, the sustained interest to digitize the overall learning environment is also contributing to the robust demand for biometrics in schools and colleges in this region.”

In Europe, the major factor responsible for the growing demand for biometrics systems in the education sector is the Europe 2020 strategy that was proposed in 2010 to improve the economy of the European Union (EU).

In addition to addressing aspects such as climate change and employment, the Europe 2020 strategy emphasizes education and training, which will contribute to a sustainable economic growth in the region.

The need for educational improvements will successively lead to developments in the education sector, which, in turn, will result in the adoption of advanced systems such as biometrics technology.

Various GCC countries such as Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait, and the UAE have allocated a significant percentage of the budget for education.

This budgetary expenditure includes the development of education projects, which implies the demand for all the required infrastructure products and services in the education market.

As a result, investments will also be made in biometrics systems to provide refined learning as well as safe environment, with many educational institutions in the region starting to implement and install biometrics systems for attendance management of students.

The report also highlights the top vendors in the global biometrics market in the education sector market including BIO-key, BioLink Solutions, BioStore, Capture Innovative Solutions, and SMI Global.

Two months ago, Technavio published a new research report on the global multi-factor authentication market which analyzes key trends expected to impact the market outlook from 2017-2021.

Ref:http://www.biometricupdate.com/201710/technavio-report-forecasts-global-biometrics-market-in-education-to-grow-26-cagr-from-2017-2021

Brisbane public transit’s potential use of biometrics raises privacy concerns

A privacy group has spoken out against recommendations that the Brisbane public transportation service use biometrics to identify passengers when they purchase their fare, according to a report by CIO.

Cubic Transportation Systems, the US firm that operates Queensland’s Go Card system for TransLink as well as developed London’s Oyster card technology, is running proof of concept trials of facial recognition, palm vein scanning and object tracking in its London lab in order to reduce queues.

The Australian Privacy Foundation last week issued a statement on the potential biometric scanning of Brisbane passengers, calling it “a danger to civil rights and privacy”.

“This is an extension of CensusFail, CentrelinkFail and MyHRFail – badly-planned and badly administered big ticket technology projects whose managers and ministers failed to heed warnings,” said Liam Pomfret, a spokesperson for the Australian Privacy Foundation. “The Foundation asks the Queensland Government to immediately launch a proper public consultation and conduct a privacy impact assessment about the collection and use of biometrics on the state’s public transport system.”

Cubic is developing biometric ‘gateless gateline prototype system’ which is designed to support a “doubled rate of passenger throughput”.

“The ability to scale biometric technology in mass transit is a key element in enabling a seamless experience in fare vending, validation and revenue collection,” said Cubic research and development engineer Niosha Kayhani. “It allows our customers to provide their riders with the option to register with the system and provide tailored and improved services for passengers, while collecting advanced data to prevent revenue loss through fare evasion.”

Partially funded by a grant from the UK’s Railway Standards and Safety Board, the proof of concept for the fast-track entry system is designed to meet the 200 percent surge in the number of passenger rail journeys forecasted over the next 30 years, Cubic said.

Cubic is competing to win a tender to revamp the Go Card system which is set to include ‘account-based automated fare collection’.

The winning system is expected to work with payment cards, smartphones, and wearables, as well as Go Card-type smartcards.

Although the biometric function has not yet been explicitly proposed by any bidder, the Australian Privacy Foundation wanted to emphasize its disapproval for the use of such technology.

“The Queensland Government needs to walk the talk about its respect for privacy,” said foundation spokesperson Justin Clacherty. “Why is such an invasive technology being established without consultation? Why is the government engaging in policy by headline rather than through sensible discussion with stakeholders?”

Cubic recently exhibited its solutions at the Australian Intelligent Transport Systems Summit in Brisbane.

Ref:http://www.biometricupdate.com/201710/brisbane-public-transits-potential-use-of-biometrics-raises-privacy-concerns

100 new CCTV cameras launched

The Police and Secunderabad Cantonment Board inaugurated a network of 100 CCTV cameras in West Marredpally on Monday. The network adds to the growing body of cameras used for both policing and civic administration in the cantonment area.

About a year ago, the Secunderabad Cantonment Board set out on getting communities to finance setting up CCTV cameras for security and civic administration purposes. The police joined the effort and encouraged the involvement of the community, mainly residential areas and street-facing businesses. As a result, the camera network in the North Zone, mostly comprising cantonment and the area extending about Bolarum Police Station, has over 40,000 cameras.

“The camera network has helped the police crack cases and also helps us identify the cause of civic problems,” said Secunderabad Cantonment Chief Executive Officer, S.V.R. Chandrashekar.

The camera network in West Marredpally costing around ₹60 lakh was financed by the Cantonment Board and the community.

“The community provided ₹35 lakh while the Cantonment Board CEO provided ₹ 25 lakh,” said M. Mahender Reddy, Commissioner of Hyderabad City Police. He attributed dip in crime rate in the city to improvement in electronic surveillance across Hyderabad.

North Zone Deputy Commissioner of Police B. Sumathi and ward member P. Nalini Kiran were present at the inauguration.

Ref:http://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/Hyderabad/100-new-cctv-cameras-launched/article19711423.ece