I527-290 ESRIF Final Report (WEB).indd - European Commission

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uncoordinated regulatory frameworks and unclear security continuity protocols among the diff erent links in the transport chain
– and especially at its outer edges – all represent security vulnerabilities that stem from the lack of a coordinated approach to
securing the container transport chain.
8.2.3.3 Cooperation between Member States in case of disasters
Identity Management of rescuers is essential to provide appropriate support (doctors, fi reman, etc.). When multiple Member
States collaborate on dealing with a disaster, each Member State is in charge of a non-overlapping zone because coordination
of support is not interoperable. Due to discrepancies with identity and skills management, it is diffi cult to transfer rescuers
from one zone to another.
Collaboration among rescuers will also become more and more important as it is estimated that disasters and victims impacted
will increase in the forthcoming twenty years. Member States of the European Union should collaborate more and more to
provide assistance to victims. Assistance could be located within the European Union or in various places around the world.
8.2.3.4 Business models
Finally it is worth noting that the points raised above, with its accompanying extensive list of requirements, will have a fi nancial
impact on those who are purchasing, designing or implementing these new systems. The issue of cost is often avoided or
shied away from, resulting in a lack of appropriate fi nancial planning, ineffi ciencies and cost overrun as well as security being
viewed primarily as a cost.
However, this is not always true and as some innovative schemes in recent times have shown that security
cannot only be seen as a business or service that consumers want to buy (for example citizens in the US and the
Netherlands voluntarily pay for a scheme that enables them to be fast-tracked through certain airports) is a service
that provides security and pays for itself, but also a service that can reduce costs by tackling overstaffing and
providing automating border processing. It is important therefore that we understand the potential cost impact
of these changes as well as the potential savings and related opportunities, and consider appropriate business
models for these new systems.
8.3 Capabilities and gaps
8.3.1 Technology maturity for people and asset identifi cation
8.3.1.1 Biometric systems performance
Current FAR/FRR and possible improvements
The most important threat on any biometric system is the danger to grant unauthorised access, due to false positive
identifi cation (FAR). Another important threat is the denial of access threat, due to false negative identifi cation (FRR). As we
already mentioned lowering the FAR leads to an increase of the FRR and vice-versa. However, certain biometric traits do lead
to better overall performance than others. For instance, among the two biometrics used in e-passport (face and fi ngerprints),
fi ngerprint recognition is clearly recognized as more secure.
Technical improvements of capturing devices and matching devices should be encouraged as they can lead to better
performance. For example, the usage of very high defi nition cameras to capture the face can help analysing the structure
of the skin. Fingerprint capture and matching technologies could be improved in a similar manner, by the processing of
additional details.
Multimodal fusion
A unimodal biometrics system uses a single biometric trait to verify/identify an individual whereas a multimodal biometrics
system uses several traits together to achieve superior performance or can apply to situations where one or more of the
available traits are needed for the identifi cation.Thanks to the advances in fusion techniques, multimodal biometric systems
have many benefi ts such as:
ESRIF FINAL REPORT - PART 2 • Working Group: Identifi cation of People and Assets