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Hawaii introduces facial recognition for COVID-19 airport screening

Richard Marley
May 19, 2021
3 minutes read
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Hawaii transportation authorities on Monday revealed the latest element of their attempts against the COVID-19 pandemic with the addition of facial recognition technology to the thermal screening of travellers entering the country.

The Hawaii Department of Transportation announced that the country’s five main air terminals have installed facial recognition technology that will assist airport employees to pull out travellers who set off the thermal screening cameras introduced for COVID-19. As stated by the state officials and NEC Corporation, the country’s vendor for the airport health inspection, any individual with a body temperature range to be at least 100.4 degrees on the thermal cameras will have their front image taken.

Footage of the software given by NEC presents those front images being sent to an airport, supported by chosen travellers being taken out for a forehead temperature test. Authorities stated that if the forehead check is within a normal limit, the passenger will be permitted to continue; if it verifies what the thermal scans read, the travellers will be taken for a more in-depth medical screening, involving a potential COVID-19 diagnostic test.

“Hawaii persists to perform precautionary measures in response to the COVID-19 and this is one component of a multi-layered procedure intended to reduce the increased coronavirus and guard the health and security of the nation,” Gov. David lge stated in a press release. “ Adopting technology such as the thermal temperature screening and facial imaging equipment will also add efficiency to the passenger verification process and bring Hawaii closer to reaching the new normal at airports.”

The new normal at Hawaii’s airport persists to involve some of the strict entry restrictions in the USA. The country’s Safe Travel program, implemented over the course of COVID-19, requires all passengers to carry a proof of negative test taken within three days of the ending part of their journey, or face a compulsory 10-day self-isolation, regardless of vaccination status. Only vaccinated individuals who received their injections in Hawaii are excluded from the rules.

The country is also in the process of producing a vaccine passport mobile application, which nation CIO Douglas Murdock stated last month to be launched in the summertime. Safety rights activists raised concerns about the air terminal screening prior year as the state initiated installing the thermal cameras and testing facial recognition mechanisms. In a letter to Ige and other administrators last July, the American Civil Union of Hawaii stated that the installation of facial recognition technology in response to COVID-19 was “ inefficient, unnecessary, common for misuse, costly, potentially unconstitutional and “ terrifying.”

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ECB Releases Paper Revealing Financial Crime Risks in Cross-border Payments
ECB has released a paper that reveals the financial risks associated with cross-border payments, suggesting possible solutions via crypto, blockchain or internlinked payments.

In a report examining the present inefficiencies of cross-border payments, the European Central Bank (ECB) makes suggestions for potential solutions using blockchain, cryptocurrency, or connected national payment rails.

The paper, titled “Towards the holy grail of cross-border payments,” discusses the problem that the friction of anti-money laundering (AML) systems is one of the main barriers to tackling payment difficulties. The study asserts that one of the six routes it proposes may be on the verge of achieving the ideal result (the so-called “holy grail”), which is that payments should be prompt, affordable, widespread, and settled in a safe medium like central bank money.

However, ECB experts emphaize that in order for this to happen, it is crucial to make progress in addressing AML and CFT compliance inefficiencies in order to make the outcome attainable.

According to the ECB document, Bitcoin was one of the potential options that the G20 considered. The layer two alternatives for micropayments, the Lightning network, are also explored in the study in addition to the Bitcoin network. The authors see the existence of one large network and the lack of middlemen as relevant advantages in resolving Bitcoin custody issues for end users.

Despite its shortcomings, such as its high energy consumption and uneven application of AML/CFT compliance, Bitcoin is nevertheless seen as a reliable alternative. Not to add, according to the ECB study quoted, “its price volatility impairs its acceptability of means of payment – both for local and cross-border” transactions.

Although less innovative than Bitcoin, the ECB considers stablecoins to be a workable alternative. Due to its possible impact on financial stability, the potential for monopolies to be created, and the opportunity for market exploitation, stablecoins are viewed with scepticism as an all-encompassing answer to cross-border payments.

Given the variance of national CBDC pilots across Europe and the fact that the availability of digital currencies is far from complete at the EU level, the research views multi-CBDC solutions as one of the more theoretical options. Nevertheless, interlinking domestic payment systems and multi-CBDC were ranked as the two most promising directions to pursue.

The ECB also used the opportunity to assess current cross-border payment rails, such as Nexus, a plan for connecting instant payment systems across national borders, TIPS RIX-EUR, which links the Swedish and Euro area TIPS platforms, and P27, as well as the alliance between EBA Clearing and The Clearing House, which aims to link the Euro zone with the US.

Suggested Read: “Crypto Should Be Regulated, Not Prohibited”, Says ECB Vice President

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E-Learning Platform and Prevailing Crimes - How Shufti Pro Can Help
The global pandemic is prompting a phenomenal increase in online life. From doing groceries to job interviews and more, many daily activities moved from in-person to online and that included education. Started by religious institutions, the educational systems, as well as way of teaching, have transformed. Thanks to technological advancements, distance or e-learning are becoming a new norm. However, over recent years, the education industry has faced numerous challenges as a result of digitization. Cyberattacks including data breaches, identity theft, phishing and blackmailing are a few most occurring issues that the sector is struggling to deal with.

Fortunately, these risks can only be mitigated to a large extent, with robust identity verification systems, which are capable of identifying the true identities of students before getting them on board.

The Rise of E-Learning and Crime – A Brief Introduction

The online or distance learning sector has significantly grown over the past years, as modern IT infrastructures and instant internet connectivity is aiding the education industry to provide people with new opportunities to gain new skills. Since the coronavirus pandemic, online e-learning has become more common as millions of people across the globe have accepted the new learning model. The work from home and social distancing norms forced schools, universities and other education centres to provide remote services which surged the use of digital learning. Thus, according to Research and Market predictions, the e-education industry is all set to reach $350 billion by 2025, however, the number might be updated after assessing the growth of COVID-19 impacts on the sector.

There are hundreds of online learning portals or websites such as Uudemy, Lynda, Skillshare, and Coursera that are widespread over the digital world facilitating billions of people. Furthermore, top-notch universities are also democratising learning by making courses accessible through online portals. For example, Stanford and Harvard’s university gives access to students to get hands-on educational material as well as courses under different categories.

However, as new technologies have emerged with heaps of benefits and innovative opportunities, the risk of crimes has also increased. Students, as well as cybercriminals, are availing the exploiting education centres for their own personal gains. Cybercriminals’ activities such as identity theft, data breaches, malicious attacks, blackmailing, synthetic identities and document fraud are among the commonly occurring crimes pouring adverse impacts over this industry. Due to this, the e-learning sector is being challenged by cyber criminals and is finding it hard to provide secure services while retaining customers along with their reputation.
Popular Cybersecurity Risks Education Sector is Prone To

There are numerous reasons cybercriminals target e-learning platforms. However, out of them these two are perhaps the most significant, first online education service providers typically gather and store sensitive personally identifiable information of millions of students. This makes a jackpot-like situation for fraudsters, who are capable of getting their hands on the personal details of victims in just one malicious or data breach attempt. Second, the data placed in educational databases are highly valuable on the dark web. The information includes mailing addresses, social security numbers, ID numbers, driver’s licence numbers, and even medicare information. In fact, nearly 11% of all data breaches that occurred in 2017 involved exposure of faculty and student health records. According to the research, adult’s sensitive information sells for around $10 to $25 dollars on the dark web, while students’ data is worth nearly $300.

As a result of gathering both types of data and the massive number of records stored at their end, it’s no wonder that employees or students associated with the education sector are targeted. Through phishing attacks or hacking the databases, criminals can use the victims’ credentials to manipulate students as well as damage the institutions’ reputations.

Social engineering attacks such as malware and phishing scams are on rise in the education industry. According to the key findings, in 2019, nearly 41% of the data breaches were caused by these attacks. CBC news published that MacEwan University lost $11.8 million after an employee fell prey to a phishing attack.

Ransomware attacks are another type of technique that fraudsters use to get their hands on databases. This involves infecting data files and systems through malicious viruses. By opening, installing or clicking on a file, the bogus software infects the system resulting in losing admin control.

Spoof attacks are also becoming common in education centres. In this scheme, the cybercriminals pretend to be a legal entity to gain authorised access to online learning platforms and then infect the data directories with malware viruses. This fraudulent activity happens in multiple ways, but some of them include email and caller ID spoofing.

Password Hijacking is another most preferred means of gaining unauthorised access to educational centres’ databases. This usually occurs when the passwords are easy to guess like “1234” or “ABC”. A report states that nearly 73% of people have set the same passwords across many accounts, making it a lot easier for criminals to hijack accounts.

How Shufti Pro Can Help

Depending on the current inconsistent situation, where the education sector is trying hard to fight sophisticated crimes, there are numerous services available at Shufti Pro that can help this industry in a variety of ways. Ranging from consent verification, document validation, and facial biometric recognition to two-factor authentication that offers the highest level of confidence as those utilised by the banks or other financial service providers. Powered by thousands of AI algorithms, Shufti Pro’s state-of-the-art identity verification services can help the education industry to overcome the risk of cyberattacks, unauthorised access, and identity theft. Ensuring legit student onboarding with 98.67% accuracy.

In addition to this, online education platforms are also finding it hard to authenticate students as well as faculties identity documents before getting them onboard. AI-powered document verification services, capable of verifying 3000+ types of identity documents written in 150+ languages, can aid digital platforms in validating documents in less than a second along with determining the sign of tempering if present.

Want to know more about identity verification for the education centres?
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Hawaii introduces facial recognition for COVID-19 airport screening

The Rise of E-Learning and Crime – A Brief Introduction

Popular Cybersecurity Risks Education Sector is Prone To

How Shufti Pro Can Help

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