Congress is very supportive of the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) plans to upgrade its enterprise biometric storage and matching system and overall there are a lot of opportunities within the department to expand the use of biometrics, says a key staffer on the Senate Appropriations Homeland Security Subcommittee.
“I do think from Congress’ standpoint they want to see it happen and they want to see it funded,” Kathy Kraninger, Republican Clerk for the subcommittee, says during a congressional panel at the annual Connect:ID conference this month. Kraninger says that she is speaking for herself and not the committee.
Congress in FY ’16 funded the first installment for the modernization of the IDENT database, which is being renamed Homeland Advanced Recognition Technology (HART) system. HART will take IDENT from the current fingerprint-based system to add iris and face image storage and matching capacity and potentially additional modalities such as DNA and voice. DHS has requested additional funds in FY ’17 to continue the modernization effort, which will also boost storage capacity, and be more flexible and scalable to meet the department’s evolving mission needs.
“HART is about getting better capabilities and having a multimodal ability to move on in a way that will allow [biometric] exit to happen and other things to happen,” Kraninger says. She adds that “We will continue to support it and I would personally like to see some innovation there. I think there are a lot of opportunities to change the architecture of IDENT to make it cheaper, faster.”
The Defense and Justice Department in recent years have modernized their respective biometric storage and matching systems to include multimodal biometric capabilities. Kraninger says developing a multimodal capability for HART represents “the biggest area of continued work,” adding that continued improvements in sharing all the various biometric identifiers between the various government biometric databases is a must. She also says that “unfortunately…some of the backend [infrastructure] is not real-time interoperable, automated, and there are a lot of opportunities to continue to improve those aspects.”
Congress provided about $65 million for HART in FY ’16. DHS is hosting a competition to modernize HART.
IDENT is essentially a fingerprint-based system although it does store face images but doesn’t have an automated recognition capability for these photos. Currently DHS is looking at fingerprint, face and iris for HART but expects future requirements to be added, such as “at least” storing DNA and potentially other modalities as missions are developed, Patrick Nemeth, division director for the Office Biometric Identity Management (OBIM) Identity Operations.
HART will be rolled out in four increments over six years with each increment lasting about 18 months. The first increment, which is funded beginning in FY ’16, will include core foundational work such as replacing the transaction manager for the IDENT system. Nemeth says the second increment will include an “extensive multimodal capability, including fusion,” bringing HART up to similar levels of capability as the DoD and DoJ systems. Fusion typically refers to enhancing the combined matching capability of two or more biometric modalities.
Nemeth moderated a DHS panel at Connect:ID that explored the department’s future identity service needs. Among the potential requirements outlined by the panelists include:
- Border Patrol wants two finger storage and matching of juveniles, in particular to help prevent human smugglers from taking advantage of the large numbers of unaccompanied minors arriving at the nation’s Southern Border. The Border Patrol wants to obtain better photos, use iris, and is also interested the potential of voice recognition technology for exit capabilities and Rapid DNA, says Tony Trinidad of the Border Patrol;
- Multimodal biometrics, to include voice and DNA in five to 10 years, to fill the small but still obvious gaps that arise sometimes with fingerprint issues for U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS);
- More use of biometric-enabled self-service kiosks by USCIS for immigrant applicants such as Green Card renewal to become more “person-centric,” says Paul Hunter, chief of the Biometrics Strategy/Biometrics Division at the agency’s Enterprise Services Directorate;
- Face, finger and iris become a standard as part of a foreign national’s first encounter with the U.S. with each DHS component using whatever biometric or biometrics best suit it for verification and identification purposes, which provides more flexibility for operations, says Mike Hardin, deputy director of CBP’s Entry/Exit Transformation Office within the Office of Field Operations. He also says that accurate biometric capture at a distance is of interest so that CBP Officers have advanced situational awareness before a person approaches them;
- At the Transportation Security Administration the use of biometrics, including face and iris, so that travelers can transit security checkpoints more quickly, says Deborah Kent, executive DHS Liaison Officer with TSA’s Office of Intelligence & Analysis. She also says there are other identities of interest such as a person’s identity on social media and what it means for risk management.