Internet-Enabled Cell Phone Use
Parents think that the worst could never happen to their children. But with constantly changing technology, parents need to be vigilant to cope with the dangers such technology can unleash. Last week, WTSP-TV in Tampa, Florida reported that Tampa Police, while conducting random sex offender checks, knocked on the door of a 52-year-old registered sex offender.
The man answered the door of his home naked. Inside, police found a 15-year-old girl who had been in a relationship with the much older man. The girl had met the sex offender through an online chatroom using her cell phone to access the Internet.
Parents should be aware that while they may have filters installed on home computers and may be checking their children’s computer use in regards to e-mail and Net surfing, Internet-enabled cell phones allow pornographic and sexual content to be accessed by children anywhere, anytime. To date there is no software available to filter a phone’s graphic content.
Parents need to set clear boundaries with children not only concerning use of the home computer, but also wireless devices. Parents should investigate the features of all the wireless devices used by their children, including removable storage media that can be kept separate from the devices. Parents should not hesitate to monitor cell phone use including investigating downloads and messages to the handsets and spontaneous checks on children’s handsets are recommended.
In the Tampa case, police believe that the girl met with the sex offender at least 20 times, even though terms of his parole from a prior violation prohibited him from using the Internet or having any contact with children. The girl’s parents were completely unaware of the situation.
Authentication Based on Finger Veins
Starting this month, Hitachi will be selling its compact and contactless Finger Vein biometric authentication device and SDK (Software Development Kit) in Europe, North America, Asia, Oceania and other geographies. Hitachi developed the product based on the original model designed for the Japanese market and sold in Japan since October 2006. PC users can now guard against illegitimate access or leakage of information on their computers by using the vein patterns in their fingers as the key to manage their computer login process. The finger vein unit has achieved its small size, high accuracy rate and low cost by employing a single-chip LSI design with this device.
Finger vein authentication is considered to be a highly secure form of biometric authentication. By the end of March 2007, about 80 percent of the financial institutions in Japan had adopted finger vein biometrics as the authentication standard for ATMs. The finger vein pattern is impossible to counterfeit because the vein is inside the body. With some of the existing biometric systems, it is possible to acquire biometric data without the knowledge of the individual, for example, finger-print, facial recognition, iris-scan etc. It is not possible to acquire the finger vein biometric feature without the knowing consent of the individual meaning that from a societal aspect, finger vein pattern recognition is safe and secure for the individual.
In operation, the process of data collection is based on a contact-less principle. Light penetrates through the finger using a light-transmission technique to allow the detection of the structure of the vein pattern. The vein pattern is image-processed using a special algorithm resulting in digital data that can be stored in a relevant data repository. The device is compact and can be applied in a variety of ways.
