Who Goes There?

By Cathy Booth Thomas/San Antonio

A sniper fires into the Alaska pipeline, shutting down oil operations on the North Slope. Anthrax infects and kills a worker on the job. Middle Eastern students breach security at corporate buildings that also house FBI offices. All true stories. All since Sept. 11.

And the Federal Government warns that there's probably more to come. When the U.S. began bombing Afghanistan, the FBI, through its National Threat Warning System, contacted 27,000 corporate security managers and urged them to be on the highest state of alert for a possible second wave of attacks. For most security chiefs the question was, What new measures can we take to meet the new threat?

To look for answers, 13,400 security and law enforcement officials--working for everyone from Pinkerton's to the CIA--turned out in San Antonio, Texas, this month for the annual meeting of the American Society for Industrial Security. Some 700 vendors hawked everything from face-recognition software to explosive-detecting sprays. Access-control technology--often considered too expensive before Sept. 11--was in hot demand. "People are scared. Execs who thought they were invincible are taking another look," said Roy Bordes, a Florida-based security consultant who briefed a standing-room-only audience on the latest gadgetry.

At the booth for Viisage Technology, based in Littleton, Mass., curious federal officials, airport execs, security chiefs and even a Mexican admiral tried out the new FacePass system, which uses a video camera and digital face-recognition software to determine who should be admitted through a door or gate. The software compares each face to digital images stored in a database. Cameron Queeno, Viisage's vice president of marketing, said commercial buildings--banks in particular--were shopping for systems whose costs range from $5,000 into the millions. "The tragedy of Sept. 11 turned into a buzz for the security business," he noted.

Privacy advocates have criticized the use of face-recognition systems on unsuspecting crowds at the 2000 Super Bowl in Tampa, Fla. The likelihood of a mismatch is high when people are moving or lighting is dim. But that's not a deterrent for most businesses. One million account holders have already opted to use face recognition for check cashing at Wells Fargo ATMs. Illinois uses the technology to check for fraudulent multiple licenses among 8 million driver's-license holders, as does West Virginia. And IBM has installed a portal system, with a metal detector in the door, to prevent employees from stealing computer chips at a factory in Ireland.

Once the stock market reopened after the Sept. 11 attacks, shares of Viisage and rival Visionics, based in Jersey City, N.J., tripled. But face recognition is only one type of biometric technology, which uses unique physical characteristics to identify a person. The International Biometric Group, a consulting firm based in New York City, predicts that by 2005, sales of biometric identification systems will rise to nearly $2 billion, from just $400 million last year, with commercial customers outspending the governments that now are the technology's primary buyers. "A bank might use 10 biometric systems--voice verification for the telephone, fingerprint for employees, iris scanning for the vault," says I.B.G. partner Raj Nanavanti.

Digital biometrics may well figure prominently in any future national ID card. The FBI has 40 million digitized fingerprints on file. Five states--Arizona, California, Connecticut, New York and Texas--use fingerprint scans to prevent welfare fraud. Disney uses fingerprint biometrics for season-ticket holders at its parks. Ben Gurion Airport in Israel, the Toronto and Vancouver airports in Canada, and eight U.S. airports use hand-scan biometrics to speed frequent travelers on their way--and give security guards more time to find potential terrorists.

Iris scans are virtually foolproof and are easier to use than retinal scans. To secure critical work areas, Lockheed Martin, the U.S. Treasury Department and Germany's Frankfurt Airport use iris-scan technology developed by Iridian Technologies of Moorestown, N.J. Prisons in Florida and Pennsylvania use it to monitor the release of prisoners. Panasonic just began marketing a $239 iris-scan camera system for airports.

Identifying people at the door is only one hindrance for terrorists, however. Loronix Information Systems of Durango, Colo., this month unveiled videocams equipped with software that purports to "read" suspicious human behavior, in case the guard who's supposed to watch the video monitor is busy unwrapping his sandwich. The software not only sets off alarms if someone tries to enter a secure area with an incorrect card or steals a computer, it also allows employers to rewind and view the culprit while it continues to record the scene. Says Loronix vice president Dave Tynan: "It's been used in key Washington posts--I can't say which ones--for the last three years."

With prices dropping to less than $2,500 for each camera, Cisco Systems uses Loronix technology to monitor 300 sites globally, from San Jose, Calif., to Beijing. Police in Seal Beach, Calif.--the bank-robbery capital of the U.S.--use a Loronix system; through laptops in their patrol cars, they can look inside a bank as a robbery is under way. The light-rail system in San Jose caught 200 vandals during its test of a Loronix system, and that made the sale. The first phase cost $1.8 million.

Other new security technologies are much cheaper. At the San Antonio meeting, Mistral Security of Bethesda, Md., showed off innocuous-looking cans of spray that can pick up microscopic traces of explosives like tnt or Semtex from a package at the cost of only $2.36 a test. The CIA and FBI are big clients, as is Boeing. Mistral's blastproof trash can is used at Grand Central Terminal in New York City and at the Pentagon, and another batch is going out for the 2002 Salt Lake Olympics in Utah.

Even background checks have undergone a high-tech makeover, with companies like Accurint and Factual Data offering a full employment check in less than 30 seconds on the Web--often at a price as low as 25[cents] a search. Accurint can locate relatives to the third degree for just $5.25.

Controlling access with iris scans and background checks might not stop a determined terrorist, but after the events of Sept. 11, it's a line of defense that corporate America can't ignore.

TIME.com For more about industrial security, see asisonline.org