A final rule to help guide ports around the country on choosing and installing smart card readers to improve security to access to secure locations within a port is expected to be issued by the end of this year, a Coast Guard official told Congress last week.
The Transportation Worker Identification Credential (TWIC) reader final rule has the personal attention of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, Rear Adm. Joseph Servidio, assistant commandant for Preparedness at the Coast Guard, told the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee last Thursday. Servidio couldn’t pinpoint a date for release of the rule beyond noting that Napolitano has said it will be ready by year-end.
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) began issuing TWIC cards to certain port workers nearly five years ago. Depending on security levels at a given time, the cards are supposed to help ports manage who has access to secure areas of the ports.
While the TWIC cards include a fingerprint biometric, that capability is rarely used because of a limited deployment of fixed and handheld card readers at ports. That means that for now the TWIC cards are essentially flash passes that require a security official to manually determine the authenticity of the card and to ensure that the person carrying the card is the same person that was issued the credential.
This past spring DHS issued a report following a three-year pilot test that essentially concluded that reader technology is viable for use in ports. Once the final rule is issued, companies that produce reader systems expect the market for their technologies to open as ports acquire systems to improve secure access at their facilities.
The types of readers that ports are expected to acquire include both fixed and handheld.
The Coast Guard estimates that of over 200 ports in the United States, between 75 and 100 have already purchased readers on their own, Servidio said.