The Abbott government is spending $18.5 million to roll out a national facial biometric capability to support efforts to catch terrorists and other criminals stealing or attempting to hide their identities to commit offences. The funding is part of the $1.3 billion invested over the last 12 months to combat terrorism. From mid-2016, law enforcement and government agencies will share and match photographs on identity documents to strengthen identity-checking processes while maintaining strong privacy safeguards, the government said on Wednesday. The capability will initially provide a one-to-one image-based verification service to Commonwealth agencies, with other agencies expected to join over time. This service will enable law enforcement and security agencies to match one photograph of an unknown person against many photographs contained in government records to help establish their identity. The government said this process will expedite putting a name to the face of terror suspects, murderers, and armed robbers, and will also help to detect fraud cases involving criminals using multiple identities. The capability will not be a centralised biometric database and will not retain or store any images that are shared between agencies, the government said. It adds to the government’s recently introduced Document Verification Service, which enables organisations to electronically match identifying information or credentials – but not photographs – on certain government-issued identity documents. Identity crime is one of the most common and costly crimes affecting up to 900,000 Australians each year, and now surpasses assault, motor vehicle theft and robbery, the government said. A report by the Attorney-General’s Department and the Australian Institute of Criminology estimated that identity crime costs $2 billion a year. Follow CIO Australia on Twitter and Like us on Facebook… Twitter: @CIO_Australia, Facebook: CIO Australia, or take part in the CIO conversation on LinkedIn: CIO Australia Follow Byron Connolly on Twitter:@ByronConnolly Related content feature The CIO’s new role: Orchestrator-in-chief CIOs have unique insight into everything that happens in a company. Some are using that insight to take on a more strategic role. By Minda Zetlin Dec 04, 2023 12 mins CIO CIO CIO opinion Fortifying the bridge between tech and business in the C-suite To be considered a tech-forward company today, there has to be a focus on tech fluency across the C-suite, which creates a unique opportunity for CIOs to uplevel their roles and expand their footprint across the enterprise. By Diana Bersohn and Rachel Barton Dec 04, 2023 7 mins CIO CIO CIO brandpost Sponsored by G42 Understanding the impact of AI on society, environment and economy By Jane Chan Dec 03, 2023 4 mins Artificial Intelligence opinion Website spoofing: risks, threats, and mitigation strategies for CIOs In this article, we take a look at how CIOs can tackle website spoofing attacks and the best ways to prevent them. By Yash Mehta Dec 01, 2023 5 mins CIO Cyberattacks Security Podcasts Videos Resources Events SUBSCRIBE TO OUR NEWSLETTER From our editors straight to your inbox Get started by entering your email address below. Please enter a valid email address Subscribe