WashingtonWire - 2003-10-20
U.S. Tests Biometrics At Airports, Works To Imbed Passports
The Transportation Security Administration last week said it selected McLean, Va.-based Unisys Corp. to administer the Airport Access Control Pilot Program "at no fewer than 20 airports" to test and evaluate new security technologies, including biometric applications, such as fingerprints, retinal (iris) scans and facial recognition. In addition to biometric systems, TSA and Unisys will test next-generation surveillance cameras that could be used at access points to guard against a second person slipping into a secure area on the heels of someone with proper credentials, as well as technological enhancements to a proposed Transportation Worker Identification Card, which TSA and the U.S. Department of Transportation are developing and is expected to be used by millions of workers across all forms of transportation.
"This pilot project holds great potential for adding another important layer of security at the nation's airports," said TSA Administrator James Loy last week. TSA will select airports and technologies for the program and announce specifics for individual airports in the next several weeks.
Meanwhile, airports around the world are testing and implementing biometric technologies in growing numbers, while the U.S. State Department rushes to meet a Congressional mandate to equip U.S. passports with similar technology. The State Department is developing passports imbedded with smart chips that will store biometric facial-recognition data. By October 2004, all new U.S. passports must have a biometric chip, as mandated by the Enhanced Border Security and Visa Entry Reform Act that also requires entry visas to use similar technology. The State Department anticipates that, because of U.S. requirements in that law that mandate the adoption of biometrics in foreign travel documents used to enter the United States, other nations will implement reciprocal requirements for U.S. visitors.
Athens International Airport is introducing an iris-based biometric system to control access to the area of the security operations center that oversees and coordinates all security activities of the airport. Dartagnan, the Netherlands-based biometric technologies company Athens International tapped to implement the system, has deployed similar applications at Amsterdam Schiphol International Airport and at New York JFK.
All Nippon Airways in December will begin participating in the testing of a biometric facial-recognition system at Tokyo Narita International Airport. The trial will run from early December to the end of March 2004. All data recorded for the purposes of the trial will be kept only until the participating passenger has boarded the aircraft and will not be used for any purpose other than the trial.
In February 2002, Virgin Atlantic Airways and Eyeticket, a McLean, Va.-based biometric company, launched a trial to identify passengers departing Washington Dulles and New York JFK who travel through Heathrow International Airport. Charlotte Douglas International Airport this past spring enhanced its security procedures by installing iris-recognition technology to identify airport and airline employees and expedite passenger wait times.
Boston First To Screen Cargo Shipped On Passenger Planes
Boston Logan International last week became the first airport in the country to screen cargo electronically before airlines load it onto commercial flights. During a 30-day trial, Logan security personnel will use two X-ray machines from L-3 Communications Security and Detection Systems to scan cargo trucks at the airport for explosives, addressing what many critics argue remains a major flaw in aviation security.
While the Transportation Security Administration has deployed extensive resources to facilitate passenger and baggage screening, only a small percentage of cargo is examined by security personnel and equipment before being shipped in cargo or passenger planes. According to the General Accounting Office, about 22 percent of the air cargo transported in the United States is carried aboard passenger planes. Congressman Edward Markey (D-Mass.), a member of the House Select Committee on Homeland Security, has proposed the Universal Screening of Air Cargo Act, which would require TSA to inspect air cargo on passenger planes. Security and airline officials argue, however, that such a requirement would be so cumbersome and time-consuming that it would prevent any cargo from being shipped on commercial flights, leading to a loss of revenue for the already struggling airlines.
TSA presently monitors cargo through the "known shipper program," wherein air carriers and the agents arranging the shipment are required to validate the companies that are sending the goods.