US group awarded bank card patent in SA

BSI2000, a developer of high-end identification and transaction systems, has announced that it has been informed by the South African Companies and Intellectual Property Registration Office that its complete specification for its patent application titled "Optical Bank Card" has been accepted.

The patent covers methods and processes for executing and tracking financial transactions such as savings accounts, cash transfers, payroll distributions, loans and mortgages, insurance programmes and bill payments with optical cards, the company says in a press release.

Security issues regarding biometric authentication of customers, crypto protection of financial information residing on optical cards, and on-card transaction audit trails are extensively covered.

Legislation before the UK Parliament to introduce compulsory ID cards will not solve the fast rising problem of identity theft, fraud prevention experts have warned, says SC Magazine.

According to GB Group, personal information, proofs of ID, such as a passport or utility bill, and even sophisticated tracking software that pinpoints the location of mobile phones and Internet users, must all be used in combination with biometric-enabled ID cards.

While the government has used the latest figure that identity theft is costing lb1.7 billion a year to bolster its argument for the introduction of ID cards, GB believes that cards will only form part of the overall arsenal to tackle fraud.

India is planning to imbed a chip in passport books, says Dr BN Shetty, the director of National Informatics Centre, Delhi.

In another 10 years, passports will turn totally electronic with global inter-operability. Once the system with biometrics is in place globally, it will facilitate automatic entry or exit at the immigration counter, reports The Times of India.

The validity of the visa and other personal details would automatically transfer to the system, says Dr Shetty. The International Civil Aviation Organisation and regulatory bodies have agreed in principle on the concept of an electronic passport.