Goodbye, Password. Banks Opt to Scan Fingers and Faces Instead
生物辨識篡位 銀行密碼掰掰
By Michael Corkery

The banking password may be about to expire – forever.
銀行密碼可能要永遠絕跡了。

Some of the nation’s largest banks, acknowledging that traditional passwords are either too cumbersome or no longer secure, are increasingly using fingerprints, facial scans and other types of biometrics to safeguard accounts.
美國一些大銀行體認到傳統密碼不是太複雜就是不再安全，日益改採指紋、臉部掃描等生物辨識科技以確保帳戶安全。

Millions of customers at Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase and Wells Fargo routinely use fingerprints to log into their bank accounts through their mobile phones. This feature, which some of the largest banks have introduced in the last few months, is enabling a huge share of American banking customers to verify their identities with biometrics. And millions more are expected to opt in as more phones incorporate fingerprint scans.
美國銀行、摩根大通與富國銀行數百萬客戶慣常在手機上用指紋登入銀行帳戶。美國一些最大的銀行最近數月推出這個新功能，讓為數甚多的銀行客戶得以用生物特徵證明身分。隨著愈來愈多手機配備指紋掃描功能，預計還會有數百萬人加入這個行列。

Other uses of biometrics are also coming online. Wells Fargo lets some customers scan their eyes with their mobile phones to log into corporate accounts and wire millions of dollars. Citigroup can help verify 800,000 of its credit card customers by their voices. USAA, which provides insurance and banking services to members of the military and their families, identifies some of its customers through their facial contours.
其他運用生物辨識科技的方法也開始上場。富國銀行讓一些客戶用手機掃描自己的眼睛，以登入企業帳戶並電匯數百萬美元。花旗集團能藉由嗓音驗證80萬信用卡客戶的身分。聯合服務汽車協會為美國軍人及其眷屬提供保險與銀行服務，能透過臉部輪廓辨識某些客戶。

Some of the moves reflect concern that so many hundreds of millions of email addresses, phone numbers, Social Security numbers and other personal identifiers have fallen into the hands of criminals, rendering those identifiers increasingly ineffective at protecting accounts. And while thieves could eventually find ways to steal biometric data, banks are convinced they offer more protection.
這些舉動多少反映了一種憂慮，就是已經有那麼多億筆的電子郵件、手機號碼、社會安全碼等個人身分識別資料落入罪犯手中，讓這些個資保護帳戶的功效愈來愈小。雖然竊賊最終仍有可能找到偷取生物特徵資料的方法，但銀行都自認已提供更多保障。

“We believe the password is dying,” said Tom Shaw, vice president for enterprise financial crimes management at USAA, which is based in San Antonio. “We realized we have to get away from personal identification information because of the growing number of data breaches.”
聯合服務汽車協會主管企業金融犯罪管理的副總裁蕭歐說：「我們認為密碼正在沒落。由於資料外洩案例愈來愈多，我們體認到必須捨棄個人身分識別資料。」協會總部在德州聖安東尼奧市。

Long regarded as the stuff of science fiction, biometrics have been tested by big banks for decades, but have only recently become sufficiently accurate and cost effective to use in a big way. It has taken a great deal of trial and error: With many of the early prototypes, a facial scan could be foiled by bad lighting, and voice recognition could be scuttled by background noise or laryngitis.
生物識別科技向來被認為是科幻小說的玩意，大銀行已測試數十年，但直到最近才變得夠精準，且成本夠低、效益夠高而能大規模應用。這種科技的發展歷經大量嘗試錯誤的過程：許多早期的臉部掃描原型機可能會因照明欠佳而無法辨識，聲紋辨識機可能會因背景雜訊或辨識對象喉嚨發炎而辨識失敗。

Before smartphones became ubiquitous, there was an even bigger obstacle: To capture a finger image or scan an eyeball, a bank would have to pay to distribute the necessary technology to tens of millions of customers. A few tried, but their efforts were costly and short-lived.
在智慧手機變得十分普及之前，發展生物辨識科技更大的困難是：為了取得手指影像或掃描眼球，銀行必須花錢，才可讓幾千萬客戶能夠使用這種必備的科技。有幾家銀行試過，卻在投入鉅資之後短命收場。

原文參照：
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/22/business/dealbook/goodbye-password-banks-opt-to-scan-fingers-and-faces-instead.html

2016-07-10/聯合報/D2版/紐約時報賞析 李京倫譯

說文解字看新聞 李京倫

什麼是生物識別科技（biometrics）？「國際標準組織」的定義是「根據個人的生物與行為特徵自動辨認身分」，而生物識別特徵具有「獨特、可重複」的特性。生物識別科技用以鑑別身分的個人特徵至少包括以下幾種：指紋、虹膜、手、臉、嗓音、步態與簽名。

biometrics還有另外一個意思「生物統計學」，這個學科常用在科學、醫學與森林學，與生物辨識科技無關，發展時間比生物辨識科技來得早。

生物辨識科技幾乎可以用在所有需要精準辨認身分的地方，譬如含有機密資料的電腦要用滑鼠掃描指紋才能使用，核電廠的關鍵區域要用多種生物辨識科技，確保只有內部人員才能進入。

come online是指變得活躍或開始運轉，例如：India’s largest solar park begins to come online.（印度最大的太陽能發電園區開始營運。）另外也有「上網」的意思。

美國「聯合服務汽車協會」是名列財星雜誌美國500大企業的金融集團，為美國現役、退役軍人及其眷屬提供銀行、投資與保險服務。2015年底，該協會有1140萬會員。協會創立於1922年，25名陸軍軍官在德州聖安東尼奧市聚會，決定互相為彼此的汽車提供保險，因為當時保險業認為軍官是高風險職業，拒絕提供車險。

Lured by Jobs, Nepalis Risk Death in Afghanistan
阿富汗恐攻四伏 尼泊爾保全賣命討生活
By KAREEM FAHIM and BHADRA SHARMA

With their wraparound sunglasses and easy smiles, the Nepalese contractors who guarded the Canadian Embassy had become respected fixtures in Kabul, part of a larger community of South Asian security guards who stood sentry at foreign missions all around the capital.
戴著全罩式太陽眼鏡，面帶和善的笑容，守衛加拿大大使館的尼泊爾外包人員，已成為喀布爾受到尊重的固定特色，他們是在首都各外國使館站衛兵、人數更龐大的南亞安全警衛的一部分。

Driven to work in Afghanistan by collapsed economic prospects back home, the contractors were able to send desperately needed money back to their families. But nothing here is without risk.
這些外包人員因國內經濟前景崩壞而前往阿富汗工作，他們能寄錢回國給極需要的家人。但這裡可是危機四伏。

Last month, a Taliban suicide bomber killed 15 men, 13 Nepalese and two Indian contractors who helped secure the embassy, striking the guards’ commuter bus just after it had picked them up at their residence compound. It was one of the deadliest attacks on foreign workers in the capital – and another example of how the South Asian contractors who have become mainstays in places like Afghanistan and Iraq are vulnerable in ways that many of their Western counterparts are not.
上個月，一名神學士自殺炸彈客炸死15名男士，他們是維護大使館安全的13名尼泊爾和2名印度外包人員，警衛的通勤巴士從他們居住的營區接他們上車後不久即被炸。這是針對首都外國工作人員死傷最重的攻擊之一，也是已成為阿富汗和伊拉克等地中流砥柱的南亞外包人員多麼易受攻擊的另一例證，而許多西方的外包人員不會如此受到攻擊。

Many of the Nepalese guards had worked for months just to recover the thousands of dollars in broker fees they had paid to secure jobs in Afghanistan. One of the guards, Prem Bahadur Tamang, 38, said that they enjoyed fewer privileges in their barracks than their “white brothers.” He added that among other restrictions, for instance, they were prevented from leaving their compound to go to a store.
許多尼泊爾警衛已工作好些個月，卻只能賺回為了在阿富汗有工作而付給仲介的數千美元。其中一名警衛，38歲的普萊姆．巴哈杜爾．塔曼說，他們在營區享有的福利比不上「白人兄弟」。他接著說，例如，諸多限制之一是他們不准離開營區去商店。

And they were shuttled around Kabul in ordinary minibuses, not in the armored cars that protect many Western contractors.
而且他們乘坐一般的迷你巴士在喀布爾穿梭，而不是保護許多西方外包人員的裝甲汽車。

Tamang said he had worked for the company for five years but abruptly returned home after the attack last month – with barely any of his clothes, saying he was still owed 20 days of wages. Other colleagues in Kabul were also considering going back to Nepal, he added.
塔曼說，他已為這家公司工作5年，但在上月的攻擊後突然返家，連衣服都沒帶，他說，他還有20天的薪水沒領。他接著說，其他在喀布爾的同事也考慮回尼泊爾。

It was not an easy choice, he said, after desperation had driven many of them to Afghanistan in the first place. “We have no job opportunities in Nepal,” Tamang said, adding that he had paid a broker the equivalent of about $3,300 to get to Kabul, where he was paid $950 a month – a fraction of the salaries paid to Western security contractors.
這不是容易的選擇，他說，畢竟當初他們之中許多人是走投無路才去阿富汗。塔曼說，「我們在尼泊爾沒有工作機會」，並說，為了去喀布爾，他已付給一名仲介相當於3300美元，他在喀布爾每月領950美元，只是西方外包保全人員的幾分之一。

Some of the Nepalese guards hoped to build a house. Others, like Tamang, were trying to rebuild their lives after Nepal’s devastating earthquake last year.
有些尼泊爾警衛希望能蓋棟房子。其他人，像塔曼這樣，則正努力在去年尼泊爾毀滅性的地震後重建生活。

原文參照：
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/29/world/asia/nepal-guards-kabul-afghanistan-taliban.html

2016-07-10/聯合報/D2版/紐約時報賞析 田思怡譯