“The issue really revolves around leadership capacity. Things have gone awry because of the challenges surrounding leadership,” he says.

Msimang says the multimillion-rand Hanis project is one example of the lack of leadership.

“The supplier contract with Hanis expired a year ago and yet no one has worked out whether to reopen it for tender, either publicly or privately, or to just extend it with the current supplier, or maybe we should just tighten up our service level agreements,” he says.

Hanis was initially conceived in 1993 when it was realised the country needed to update its identity document systems and to use a smart card to replace the easily-forged green identity book. The initial contract was awarded in 1999 to the MarPless consortium, which includes Gajima Everest and hardware supplier Unisys.

Politicking officials

A MarPless spokesperson confirms the initial contract expired more than a year ago and the consortium is working on an ad hoc basis until a new policy comes from the department.

“We have experienced politicking by the senior Home Affairs officials who have not yet decided on what to do with Hanis,” says the MarPless spokesperson.

She says the consortium was responsible for implementing the first phase of the Hanis system, including installation of the equipment, and it is now doing maintenance-level work.

“We have proposed an upgrade to the system, but have heard nothing yet,” she says.

Msimang says the initial Hanis specifications may also have to be revisited.

On other IT-related issues, Msimang says the functioning of Home Affairs is related to a strong IT infrastructure. This means the right people have to be in place and possibly some of the other programs should be re-engineered to obtain efficiencies, he adds.

Privacy has had a rare victory in one of Australia's most successful public biometric roll-outs by health insurer Australian Health Manangement, which has registered more than 13 000 members to its voice verification platform since last December, reports Computerworld.

While biometric advocates claim the technology improves security through voice and face recognition, fingerprint identification, and advanced techniques such as deep-palm reading and retinal scanning, the security-conscious argue stolen biometric data is irreplaceable.

Australian Health Management operations manager, Melinda Charlesworth, said: "The potential threat of an unauthorised person passing the [100-point] security checks to access customer records is much higher in our industry, because it's often a close relation, like an ex-spouse, who knows the victim's name, address, and date of birth," Charlesworth said.

Hi-tech I-Kad for foreign students

The Malaysian Immigration Department is in the process of issuing the I-Kad to 66 000 plus foreign students, as part of efforts to issue foreigners who are legally working or studying there with the hi-tech, chip-embedded card, the Malaysian Star Online reports.

In an initial move, the card would be issued to international students. To make it easier for the authorities to identify, the student cards would come in a light green colour.

The new I-Kad, which will replace the current student cards issued to all international students, will have 17 security features, such as embossing and engraving, to prevent forgery.  

Nanotechnology creates transparent transistors

Researchers have used nanotechnology to create transparent transistors and circuits, a step that promises a broad range of applications, from e-paper and flexible colour screens for consumer electronics, to smart cards and heads-up displays in auto windshields, Physorg.com reports.

The transistors are made of single "nanowires," or tiny cylindrical structures that were assembled on glass or thin films of flexible plastic.

"The nanowires themselves are transparent, the contacts we put on them are transparent and the glass or plastic substrate is transparent," said David Janes, a researcher at Purdue University's Birck Nanotechnology Centre and a professor in the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering.

RFID polices the cops

Dakshina Kannada police have introduced electronic beat, or 'e-beat', in 25 of their 28 police stations, according to daijiworld.com.

A major advantage of e-beat is it thrusts greater accountability on the police constables assigned to a particular beat. Until now, the constables working either on day-beat or night-beat used to sign and enter the time in the point books kept at pre-designated places.

Police superintendent Lokesh Kumar told The Hindu newspaper that the district police had put the system through a trial-run for three months to find out its shortcomings, if any. "We experienced problems with a few card readers issued to beat constables, as well as RFID tags fixed at pre-designated points. The faulty equipment has been replaced,” he said.