[LINK] Smartcard mooted for federal welfare payments

[Stephen Wilson]

Tom Koltai wrote:
>> Smartcard mooted for federal welfare payments
>> Karen Dearne
>> April 21, 2009
>> The Australian 
>> http://www.australianit.news.com.au/story/0,24897,25361756-15306,00.html
>>     
> The sad facts in this story are the ommissions.
>
> The amount of domestic violence will increase dramtically with this card
> and Pin numbers will be revealed under duress.
>
> I urge the Government to include Biometrics as the SOLE source of card
> actualisation.
That's a big call!  Is there any biometric system proven in large scale 
retail payments card applications?  In rural settings especially, the 
false positive false negative trade-off will be diabolically difficult.  
What technology do you have in mind? 

Identity theft and fraud are not banished by biometrics.  For some 
technologies like fingerprint, ID theft is much easier than it is with 
PINs.  And what to do when a biometric is compromised?  They cannot be 
canceled and re-issued. 

Cheers,

Stephen Wilson
Lockstep Consulting
www.lockstep.com.au