IfG.CC -
Institute for eGovernment

The state is deploying a new biometrics data management system (BDMS) that includes a Web-based fingerprinting component. Once online, the system will enable state officials to more efficiently track who is receiving homeless services and the types of services rendered.

"CJIS calls for two-factor authentication and we concluded the best -- and least expensive -- way to deal with that was the use of biometrics," says George Maldonado, the city's assistant administrator.

Heading in a new direction like this required the sign-off of city finance director Wes Hamil and other Winter Park executives. "We considered it a pretty important matter, and fit it into the 2010 budget," Hamil says.

California became the ninth state in which each county has activated Secure Communities, a fingerprint data-sharing program between local law enforcement offices and federal immigration enforcement agencies. Other states with complete activation include Texas, West Virginia, Florida, Arizona, Delaware, Virginia, Wisconsin and New Mexico.

When Coast Guard cutters intercept the thousands of people trying to enter the United States illegally each year, ship personnel collect and transmit biometric data on those individuals to check them against a Homeland Security Department database.

However, a recent audit by the DHS inspector general found that the Coast Guard does not consistently reconcile the data it collects through its Biometrics At Sea System, or BASS, with what it provides to DHS's Automated Biometric Identification System, or IDENT.

Sheriff Joe Pelle said he expects little to change at the Boulder County Jail in the wake of Gov. Bill Ritter's approval of a controversial immigrant-tracking program, despite howls of protest against the federal initiative from immigrant-rights organizations.

The program, known as Secure Communities, would identify illegal immigrants through the fingerprints of every person booked into jail and attempt to determine who should be deported.

Creating, remembering and managing long, complex passwords is “inherently unnatural,” the agency said on its Active Authentication site. And most active sessions don’t have mechanisms to identify that the current user is still the one originally authenticated.

Playhouse Child Care Center already had a keypad that required parents to enter a four-digit code. But Ward said she liked the peace of mind that comes with knowing that anyone picking up a child from the center must first prove their identity.

"I'm all about more security when it comes to my kids," Ward said.

“These new kiosks will make driver license replacement and renewal much easier than ever before,” Delaware Division of Motor Vehicles Director Jennifer Cohan said. “Delawareans depend on their state-issued IDs not just for driving but for a myriad of vitally important functions every day. We’re here to make the process of renewing and replacing the old ones as speedy and painless as we can.”

The kiosks, rolled out in Dover, Wilmington, and Georgetown, are provided by MorphoTrust USA (Safran group), the current provider of driver license issuance solutions for Delaware and 40 other states.

The Homeland Security Department finalized in May a plan for instituting a biometric exist system from the United States, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano told a congressional panel.

During a July 19 hearing of the House Judiciary Committee, Napolitano said the department submitted a plan to Congress in May detailing how the biometric exist system could be rolled out.

The Department of Homeland Security released its vision for how enhanced biometrics capabilities will transform the agency’s operations over the next 10 years.

DHS has several biometric-based programs underway, including the Automated Biometrics Identification System as well as various research and development activities within its Science and Technology Directorate and operational components. This DHS strategic framework, released Aug. 26, will be used to identify and align DHS initiatives to meet strategic goals and objectives, the agency said, as well as identify gaps where action plans must be initiated.

However, past tests of an upgraded version ABIS, which is also a mainstay of biometrics data sharing partnerships with the departments of Justice, State and Homeland Security, have not fared well, and the course of development of the system remains unclear, according to the Army’s Biometrics Identity Management Agency.

For more than a decade, DoD has used fingerprints, iris scans and facial recognition technology to detect terrorists in Afghanistan, Iraq and in other countries. But as an approach to physical access, the military has only in a limited way put their Common Access Cards (CACs) with biometric data on them to full use.

A 2009 independent report prepared by Westat of Rockville, Md., for DHS shows that the system is 99.2 percent accurate. That sounds pretty good, if we're talking about shooting percentages or exam scores. But there are plenty of places where 99.2 percent isn't good enough. I like my bank to be much more accurate than that, for example.

Although the jail’s system is still being implemented, the new biometric software will allow officers to confirm a person’s identity just by having him or her pass in front of a camera. The technology takes 3-D snapshots of an individual’s face, each consisting of 40,000 data points. The images are then automatically compared against a database to locate a match.

For several years, the Federal Bureau of Investigation has operated facilities in Harrison County that work in biometrics, including fingerprint identification.

At West Virginia University, there is a Center for Identification Technology Research.

Biometric ID cards being developed for federal employees and contractors may include iris scanning in addition to fingerprinting, according to updated specifications released by the federal organization for IT standards.

A new draft of Special Publication 800-76-2 by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) includes a clause that would require the use of iris scanning as biometric identification if a person doesn't have fingerprints or if fingerprinting is problematic, according to the document.

A recent report from the Government Accountability Office (GAO) demonstrates that the federal E-Verify program needs a biometric component, according to the Security Industry Association (SIA).

E-Verify is used by employers to determine if individuals are legal residents of the United States and, thus, eligible to work in this country. The program, however, suffers from significant error rates, and SIA in November released a set of recommendations for adding a biometric component to the program that could “reduce these error rates, increase privacy and enhance identity assurance.”

The federal government has stepped up plans to use the Federal Personal Identity Verification (PIV) system to verify employee and contractor credentials to access federal facilities and IT networks and systems, according to a memo from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) issued Thursday.

The move to the system is mandated by Homeland Security Presidential Directive 12 (HSPD 12), a federal cybersecurity initiative the government said is aimed at increasing security and efficiency, reducing identity fraud, cutting costs and protecting personal privacy. Cybersecurity is a chief concern of the federal government, and the system is one of many it's taking to provide more security both internally and externally.