A comparative analysis of opinions of Americans, Australians and Malaysians on the use of biometric devices in workplaces for security and monitoring of worker productivity

Since the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks in New York, the use of biometric devices such as fingerprint scans, retina and iris scans and facial recognition in everyday situations for national security and border control, have become commonplace. This has resulted in the biometric industry moving from being a niche technology to one that is ubiquitous. As a result. more and more employers are using biometrics to secure staff access to their facilities as well as for tracking staff work hours, maintaining 'discipline' and carry out surveillance against thefts. detecting work hour abuses and fraud. However, the data thus collected and the technologies themselves are feared of having the potential for and actually being misused - both in terms of the violating staff privacy and discrimination and oppression of targeted workers. This paper examines the issue of using biometric devices in organisational settings their advantages, disadvantages and actual and potential abuses from the point of view of critical theory. From the perspectives of Panoptic surveillance and hegemonic organisational control, the paper examines the issues related to privacy and identification, biometrics and privacy, biometrics and the 'body', and surveillance and modernity. The paper also examines the findings ofa survey carried out in Australia. Malaysia and the USA on respondents' opinions on the use of biometric devices in everyday life including at workplaces. The paper concludes that along with their applications in border control and national security, the use of biometric devices should be covered by relevant laws and regulations. guidelines and codes of practice. in order to balance the rights to privacy and civil liberties of workers with employers' need for improved productivity, reduced costs, safeguards related to occupational health and safety, equal opportunity, and workplace harassment of staff and other matters, that employers are legally responsible for.

Detecting collusion attacks in security protocols

Security protocols have been widely used to safeguard secure electronic transactions. We usually assume that principals are credible and shall not maliciously disclose their individual secrets to someone else. Nevertheless, it is impractical to completely ignore the possibility that some principals may collude in private to achieve a fraudulent or illegal purpose. Therefore, it is critical to address the possibility of collusion attacks in order to correctly analyse security protocols. This paper proposes a framework by which to detect collusion attacks in security protocols. The possibility of security threats from insiders is especially taken into account. The case study demonstrates that our methods are useful and promising in discovering and preventing collusion attacks.

Speed, international security, and "New War" coverage in cyberspace

Mass media representations foster a view that the "War on Terror" is taking place both everywhere and nowhere, presenting Western governments with an opportunity to mobilize public support in new and ubiquitous ways. Starting with Virilio's critique of technology, speed, and de-territorialization, this article discusses the ways in which mass support is mobilized by the state in conventional pursuit of geopolitical objectives. Drawing on  contemporary international relations theory, the authors introduce the concept of "securitization" and discuss how war coverage in cyberspace has been used to securitize international threats, such as "global terrorism," to justify state intervention, including war. It is concluded that one of the paradoxes of war coverage in cyberspace is that whereas cyber-technologies should democratize the politics of war by liberating access to information about war, the state has coopted information and communication technologies to facilitate new forms of mass mobilization for war itself.

Security management : modelling critical infrastructure

Secure management of Australia's commercial critical infrastructure presents ongoing challenges to owners and the government. Currently a high-level iriformation sharing collaboration between the government and business manages complex security issues, but critical irifrastructure protection also lacks a scalable model exhibiting the overall structure of critical infrastructure at various levels, sectors and sub-sectors. This research builds on the work of Marasea and Warren (2003) to establish a representative model of Australia's critical irifrastructure; discusses the boundaries between critical infrastructures, and considers the existence andpotential irifluence ofcritical irifrastructure relationships.

Understanding consumer adoption of internet banking : an interpretive study in the Australian banking context

This paper reports key findings from an interpretive study of Australian banking consumer experiences with the adoption of internet banking. The paper provides an understanding of how and why specific factors affect the consumer decision whether or not to bank on the internet, in the Australian context. A theoretical framework is provided that conceptualizes and links consumer-oriented issues influencing adoption of internet banking. The paper also provides a set of recommendations for Australian banks. Specifically, the findings suggest that convenience is the main motivator for consumers to bank on the internet, while there is a range of other influential factors that may be modulated by banks. The findings also highlight increasing risk acceptance by consumers in regard to internet-based services and the growing importance of offering deep levels of consumer support for such services. Gender differences are also highlighted. Finally, the paper suggests that banks will be better able to manage consumer experiences with moving to internet banking if they understand that such experiences involve a process of adjustment and learning over time, and not merely the adoption of a new technology.

A methodology of health information security evaluation

With the conversion of paper health records to electronic health records, the health care sector is increasingly relying on technology to maintain the integrity of and update patients’ data. This reliance on technology requires an acute level of protection from technological disasters and/or threats of human error or sabotage. Research has shown there are inadequacies in the installation and use of security controls for health information records and that current methods of security analysis lack the techniques to analyse the technical and social aspects of security. This paper reports on progress towards development of a health information security evaluation methodology based on Unified Modelling Language techniques, and discusses an imminent case study that will be used for validation of the methodology.

Human right to food security in refugee setting: rhetoric versus reality

Despite recent advances in the area of humanitarian responses and the publication and dissemination of various guidelines with regard to nutritional interventions, there is, however a paucity of studies which have examined the human right to food in complex emergencies. 186 countries including those affected by both human made and natural disasters and countries who are donors of humanitarian relief aid adopted the Rome Declaration on Food Security and World Summit plan of Action reaffirming “ the right to adequate food and the fundamental right of everyone to be free from hunger”. The human right to adequate and nutritious food in refugee settings implies that every refugee has physical and economic access to sufficient food to provide the necessary nutrients for effective physical and physiological functions and achieve well being. There are many grounds for believing that the current humanitarian responses to disasters more often violate than respect the human right to adequate and nutritious food. Using elements of household food security as our working framework this paper focuses on the complex ethical and moral questions raised by the conventional humanitarian assistance framework and in particular the issue of human right to food and household food security in refugee settings.

Portable sick leave in the Victorian building industry : managing cumulative employee benefits in the absence of employment security

The trend away from full-time permanent employment raises questions about the relevance of traditional approaches to managing and compensating employees. Employment in the Australian building industry is characterised by short-term, project-based employment. Employers and unions in the industry have adopted alternative compensation models to accommodate the short-term nature of employment, most notably through portable benefit schemes. In 1997, the Victorian building industry extended the range of portable benefits to include sick leave. Empirical evidence suggests a relationship between employee absence behaviour and accrual entitlement models. Research reported here supports this link, and suggests that both employers and employees can benefit from an alternative, portable, approach to accrued entitlements. Employers can benefit because employees may be less likely to take an instrumental approach to their entitlements. Employees benefit because they are able to accrue entitlements for the period they remain in the building industry, irrespective of the extent to which they change jobs.