The Australian government has allocated 59.9 million Aud (US$44 million) towards beefing up biometric security at its borders.The funds will be provided over four years to enhance biometric storage and processing capabilities to “contribute to a safer border and safer Australia”, revealed this year's federal budget. This will facilitate high-volume biometric matching, storing, analysis and data sharing of facial image and fingerprint biometrics through the introduction of new technology, the department said.The tech upgrade is aiming to improve the detection of people of interest and speed up the approval process for legitimate travelers.The funding comes just a day after the Australian Federal Police (AFP) received a AU$321.4 million funding boost under the 2017-18 Budget in part to hire biometrics experts and covert online investigators, and to improve digital forensics capabilities.Justice Minister Assisting the Prime Minister for Counter Terrorism Michael Keenan added that the AFP has been facing increasingly sophisticated threats, with the nature of crime changing in the digital age.Biometrics will this year also be added to the National Automated Fingerprint Identification System (NAFIS) by Australian law-enforcement technology agency CrimTrac under a AU$52 million contract with NEC Australia announced last year.The new Biometric Identification System (BIS) will involve not only fingerprints, but also palm prints and facial recognition.”The BIS will not only integrate with existing law-enforcement systems, but advance as our nation's biometric capability advances,” Keenan said in a statement at the time.

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