Emerging Industry Overview: Biometrics
Industry Snapshot
In the wake of the September 11 terrorist attacks in New York and Washington, DC, security concerns, both in the physical world and in cyberspace, took on a renewed prominence. Calls for increasingly high-tech and foolproof safeguards led to identity verification technologies designed to restrict access to buildings, computer systems, accounts, and so on. Biometrics technology was increasingly viewed as a major barrier against security threats of various kinds, from identity theft to terrorism. Biometrics measures physical characteristics unique to each human being, such as fingerprints, retinal and iris patterns, facial structure, and even...