Bush Administration Developing Worker ID Data StandardsBush Administration Developing Worker ID Data Standards

The Homeland Security Department over the next few months will look to expand the latest phase of its Transportation Worker Identification Credential prototype program to include about 200,000 workers from maritime, rail, aviation, and ground modes of transportation at 34 sites in three regions across the country. The program is swinging into full gear as members of the Bush administration work by late February to create a standard for secure and reliable forms of identification the federal government can issue to its employees and contractors.

The government is on a quest, backed by Homeland Security Presidential Directive 12, to create a standard identification system based on sound criteria for verifying an individual employee's identity. The system also must be resistant to identity fraud, tampering, counterfeiting, and terrorist exploitation. Additionally, the system must produce credentials that can be quickly authenticated electronically and issued only by providers whose reliability has been established by an official accreditation process.

In response to the presidential directive, the National Institute of Standards and Technology's Computer Security Division plans to create by Feb. 28 a set of federal information processing standards, guidelines, recommendations, and technical specifications for personal identity verification of federal employees and contractors.

The government's proactive role in the development of standard technology for enabling uniform credentialing processes will produce new opportunities for private-sector companies looking to improve the security of their own credentialing and authentication systems.

"As the government continues to deploy the technology, it will be standardized and drive down the cost as a result," says Matt Shannon, Homeland Security strategic account manager for Saflink Corp., a maker of biometric security software. Saflink is working with lead contractor BearingPoint Inc., as well as fellow contractors Lockheed Martin, Unisys, and Anteon, on a contract worth $12 million for the credentialing prototype program.

Saflink's technology is already in use throughout the federal government, including the Defense Department for its Common Access Card credentialing program and the State Department for its Biometrics Logical Access Development and Execution program. The Transportation Worker Identification Credential program goes a step beyond its predecessors by using smart-card technology to simultaneously provide users with both physical access to secure facilities and logical access to data, Shannon says.

The current phase of the credentialing program will wrap up in March after seven months of operation in Philadelphia; the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, Calif.; and the 14 major port facilities in Florida. The program kicked off in March 2002.