In 1996, William Beaumont Hospital, a 254-bed community hospital in Michigan, had a problem: A small number of rogue employees were taking narcotics from a storage area without authorization.

Biometric security systems have one particularly critical vulnerability: How do you replace your finger if a hacker figures out how to duplicate it? An IBM research team working on that problem says it's recently cracked a major problem in the area of "cancelable biometrics."

The US Department of Homeland Security this week offered the first public details of a proposed border-control system that will use biometric technology to authenticate the identities of visitors and immigrants entering the US.

People and passwords -- in the long run, they just don't work very effectively together. At least that's what Phil Fowler, vice president of IT at Telesis Community Credit Union, a financial services provider that manages $US1.2 billion in assets, found out. His team ran a network password cracker as part of an enterprise security audit last year to see if employees were adhering to Telesis' password policies. They weren't.

In this computer-driven era, identity theft and the loss or disclosure of data and related intellectual property are growing problems. We each have multiple accounts and use multiple passwords on an ever-increasing number of computers and Web sites. Maintaining and managing access while protecting both the user's identity and the computer's data and systems has become increasingly difficult. Central to all security is the concept of authentication -- verifying that the user is who he claims to be.

There is a formula to keep your company safe. Do you have all the right elements?

Most computer attacks come from the outside. But the costliest ones come from the inside. Here’s how to manage the risk without making honest employees feel like crooks.

Celebrating a centenary of fingerprinting in NSW today Police Minister John Watkins released the latest results of NSW Police Force's biometric technology programs, Livescan and Phototrac.

The US government pushes biometrics to the forefront.

CIO casts a sceptical eye on some of the most talked about tech trends.

After successfully creating a new domestic security framework since the attacks of September 11, 2001, the US federal government must tackle the bigger job of building on that framework and putting new security systems and procedures into place.

An employee investigates how easy it would be to steal money from his company. The answer: difficult, but not impossible.

New networking services, wireless devices and the latest products regularly turn network security upside down. It's no wonder CIOs can't keep up.

Running an enterprise without a formalised security policy seems as imprudent as installing office-building doors without locks. However, according to some security industry experts, it’s a common phenomenon.

The University of Canberra is currently undergoing trials of voice authentication software on behalf of the federal government.