Biometric smartcards are made compulsory for sea-going fishermen from January 1, 2009, who reside in the Mangalore coast of Karnataka (India). It is very surprising to note this initiative from a local government organization steps up to enhance security and enforcing stronger access control – very pro-active move !

Here is the Story – Biometric attendance system at New Mangalore port

It would be interesting to see how the biometric system addresses “False Rejection Rate (FRR)” cases among fishermen (due to quality of fingerprints) and how it handles  the enrollment and authentication processes – when the quality of fingerprints from fishermen is degraded as it is usually/highly susceptible to Wet fingers, Skin abrasion, Skin disease, Minutia Scarcity and related problems. Usually the security gurus feel, FRR should’nt be a big issue till it blows up high and raised to become an user-experience issue (When an influential guy is blocked out)!!

As long as the organization fail to grasp on the nuts and bolts of biometric systems, the potential dangers still remain.