I. Answer the following questions.

1. What technologies of security systems are mentioned in the text?

2. Why do some security measures raise serious privacy concerns?

3. How can a laser help seek explosives?

4. What advantage does millimetric radiation have for detecting weapons?

5. What is the algorithm used to reconstruct a three-dimensional image of an object?

6. Why does millimeter wave scanning seem unlikely to be widely used?

II. Complete the table below with the data from the text to summarise security techniques and the technologies they are based on.

Security Technique	Technology
...	...
...	...

III. Summarise the main points of the text using the following clichés.

The text is about ...

Attention is drawn to the fact that ...

Of special interest is the author's argument that ...

It should be noted that ...

There is no doubt that ...

Word Study

I. Form verbs from the following nouns.

Noun	Verb
prevention detection identification application detonation penetration exhibition limitation improvement recognition

II. Fill in each gap with a suitable word from the box.

accurate, detection, traits, resolution, scan, thumbprints, licences, biometric markers, amenable, capture

1. By using biological .... that are unique to each individual, security systems distinguish people who are dangerous from those who are not.

2. When you need to prove that you are you, a new .... is made of your eye, hand or fingerprint and compared with a stored version.

3. Iris scanning is the most .... among various techniques.

4. Explosives .... is one of the key objectives of airport security.

5. Scanners exhibit high ...., which is adequate for detecting even small weapons.

6. The human iris – coloured protein of the eye ‑ is not .... to easy modification.

7. For greater safety, a security system could store ....., along with PINs and passwords.

8. Biometric data, just like other data, could be stolen and used on credit cards, .... and other documents.

9. Biometric devices can ..... both your face and your voice without your consent.

10. Iris scans, ...., hand maps and other computer technologies may make us safer and more vulnerable at the same time.

1. You are going to listen to the interview with Bill Holmes, vice president of Secure Solutions, a security software company which develops smart cards.

John Smith (JS): Today in the studio we have Bill Holmes, vice president of Secure Solutions, a security software company which develops smart cards. So, Mr Holmes, why is it necessary to introduce smart cards as identification documents?

Bill Holmes(BH): Well, traditional document based identifications such as licences, passport/visa and so on are always considered unreliable. All of them are easy to be forged and copied. Particularly with today's technologies, high quality colour photocopies, printers and scanners high quality fraudulent documents can be produced easily. This makes the inspection of documents more and more difficult. So, the smart card is probably the best solution.

JS: Are smart cards secure? Are you sure that they cannot be forged?

BH: Well, at least they are supposed to be the safest IDs. Printed information and photographs are digitised and stored into the card. By setting up the access condition and password on files, only authorised persons and authorities, such as government departments, are allowed to access the information. Moreover, together with the biometrics technology, biometric information of the card holder can be placed on the card, so that the smart card can corporate with biometrics scanner to identify or verify whether the card is owned by the card holder or not. This significantly improves the reliability of the document the smart card carries.

JS: How are smart cards identified?

BH: The operation procedures are similar to the traditional paper based identification system. However, instead of verifying the documents by observation of an inspection officer, a card acceptor device is used. The device which contains the authorised code and PIN can unlock the file and retrieve the owner’s information for verification. In the case when biometrics is used the user can be authenticated by placing the required portion of his/her body onto a biometrics reader. The data collected by the reader can be used to compare with the one in the card.

JS: Do you cooperate with any of your colleagues ?

BH: Of course, we do. Nowadays many organizations and governments in different countries have research on this issue. For example, many airlines intend to develop their electronic tickets by using smart cards which cooperate with the baggage handling system in some airports. The smart card typically stores the passenger’s flight details such as name, seat number, flight number, baggage details and so on. This helps to verify correct passengers checked-in and identify the owner of the baggage in case of lost or unclaimed baggages. More importantly, the system may help to identify criminals and terrorists.

JS: Do you think smart cards will replace paper based documents in future?

BH: They are already replacing them and it is anticipated that this trend will continue. Information stored on the card about the owner will be increasing. Therefore, the current access control system based on PIN presentation may not be secure enough. So we suggest using some kind of authentication algorithms to protect all the files and the whole system.

JS: Thank you, Mr Holmes.