Time for UKvisas’ ID Checking Reduced
UKvisas, a joint Directorate of the UK’s Home Office and Foreign & Commonwealth Office, has cut the time it takes for visa applicants to have their identities checked against previous visa applications and immigration history by around two days. This has been achieved using the combined services of PA Consulting Group and Software AG’s service-oriented architecture (SOA) technologies.
From Jan. 1, biometrics have been collected in all of the UK’s 150+ visa issuing posts across the world (10 finger scans and a digital photograph) of all applicants for a UK visa. Once an application is made, the SOA-based system ensures that the biometric data can be compared in real time — less than 30 minutes — with information held in the UK. This helps officials determine which application should be successful and which should not.
Software AG’s solution, procured through Computacenter, will cope with expansion, as UKvisas anticipates that the number of applications that require biometric checks will rise by 10 percent per annum year on year. PA Consulting Group was appointed to manage, design and deliver this project.
“We had to increase the accuracy of our immigration decisions, as well as ensure visa application turnaround time met our public service agreement (PSA) targets,” said Tony Mercer, Network Operations Director at UKvisas. “Checking biometrics by e-mail with the manual processes involved was incapable of scaling to meet the exacting requirements of the UK Home Office. We can now continue to meet PSA targets on visa turnaround time worldwide through our real-time link, without compromising the increasingly rigorous checks on identity that are essential in these times of heightened security. There has been a controlled global roll-out, and by the end of November 2007, we had successfully enrolled our 1,000,000th applicant using this system.”
Accuracy of immigration checks is critical for UK government efficiency, as well as for national security. The average cost of deportation is estimated by the UK’s National Audit Office to be 11,000 GBP per person.
“The real-time link also provides us with a way of securely accessing existing information on applicants held in the UK, helping us to ensure that visas are not granted to people who have previously been removed from the country and are attempting to re-enter under a false identity,” Mercer said.
As required by legislation, to be introduced in 2008, all applications made for visas to enter the UK must be supported by biometric checks using digital photographs and fingerprint scans before approval. This groundbreaking program is the first in the UK government’s identity program to be implemented. Under the program all UKVisas applicants have their biometrics enrolled, their data sent securely to the UK for storage and matching, and the results of their matches are returned to overseas officials within 30 minutes of enrollment.
Spammers Off to Fast Start in 2008
Managed security service provider MX Logic, Inc., has observed a fast start to 2008 for spam and malware threats compared to previous years. Spam volumes typically decrease during the first few months of a new year, dropping by as much as 30 percent from holiday peak periods. However this year spam levels appear to be steady and even rising, particularly with phishing e-mails, which increased 100 percent between January and February. Image spam also grew, increasing by 60 percent during the same timeframe. Social engineering tactics such as Microsoft update notices or phony Google search results that forward users to sites that have been abused by the Google PageRank system continue to propagate. Several legacy threats also re-emerged in January and February, including Drive-by Pharming and Master Boot Record Rootkit attacks.
Emergency Notification by E-Mail and SMS
Emergencies can cause havoc in any organization. Whether it’s a school or a company, weather warnings, security alerts or safety shutdowns must be handled promptly and efficiently. In emergency situations calm, quick, reliable information must be readily accessible for all involved. Sergeant Laboratories has created AristotleAlert (http://aristotlealert.com) to offer an easy and economical way for emergency response teams in schools, local governments or companies to deal with enterprise-wide warnings.
AristotleAlert makes it possible to send emergency messages to PCs and mobile devices through e-mail or SMS in a controlled and measured manner. This can ensure quick, accurate notification of all concerned and lessen the possibility of the dissemination of confusing or frightening misinformation.
Emergency response personnel may specify any type of message and have it stored on the AristotleAlert server. When needed, they may invoke the message from any network-connected computer and have it delivered immediately to users by machine name, user name, group names or job function. An easy to use calendar interface stores and reports alert types and messages so that a historical log of all message alerts is available.
Created to be clear to all users and provide timely delivery of message alerts, AristotleAlert avoids problems like complex system installations and unknown or undocumented message delivery, providing a single point of alert control. Using AristotleAlert, emergency response personnel can be sure that their messages in regards to emergency procedures will be delivered to end users.
APICORP’s New Backup
PRO TECHnology Saudi Arabia has completed the installation of its advanced data backup solution for Arab Petroleum Investments Corporation (APICORP). The solution includes the Storageflex — Backup Disk, Qualstar Tape Library and Symantec-Veritas NetBackup 6.0 for Windows. The solution enables APICORP to operate with the benefit of a robust ‘disk-to-disk-to-tape’ solution within its Saudi branch while creating a tape library for disaster use in the Bahrain branch. The tape library would provide the necessary data to quickly rebuild servers in the event of a crash.
Established in November 1975 in accordance with an international agreement among the ten-member states of the Organization of Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries (OAPEC), APICORP is the only financial institution in the Arab world that specializes in providing finance for the oil and gas industries in the region. In addition, the Corporation also manages finance for the transportation and storage of oil, gas and petrochemicals. Its main activities include financing of exports of crude oil, petrochemicals, gas and other refined products from the Middle East, as well as Arab imports of oil-related equipment, machinery and services.
“With Data Protection emerging as one of the most important issues in today’s business landscape, we have fully recognized the importance of its effective management to ensure a high level of credibility across all aspects of our operations. We are aware that the loss of business-critical information may lead to serious implications. We are thoroughly impressed with the solution that has been delivered to us, which simplified the data back-up process while providing us with a sense of Data Protection in terms of safeguarding sensitive business information,” said Mohammed Elkhouly, IT manager, APICORP.
