An HS Daily Wire conversation with Walter Hamilton of the International Biometrics Industry Association (IBIA)

and iris recognition. The FBI wants to enhance its ability to identify persons of interest, whether criminals or terrorists. This can be achieved by using additional biometric characteristics such as palm prints, iris patterns, facial images, or even systems for indexing scars, marks, and tattoos.

This is a big initiative, with an estimated cost to the taxpayer of over $1 billion for upgrading the systems involved. Our association supports this program, and our members are expected to be active participants in providing the latest biometric technologies to the FBI in support of its modernization efforts.

We also support the President’s directive requiring a new, uniform, and interoperable biometric-based credential for federal workers and contractors to use when seeking unescorted access to government buildings or information systems. The new ID credential, the “Personal Identity Verification” (or PIV) card, uses biometrics stored in the smart chip embedded in the body of the plastic card. That is another huge program, with millions of workers set to be issued with new credentials over the coming months.

DW: What about similar work on the private-sector side?

Hamilton: In the private sector, Congress mandated a program to use biometrics and smart chip ID cards, similar to the PIV card, to positively identify transportation workers who enter sensitive areas of our regulated maritime facilities and vessels. The Transportation Worker Identification Credential (or TWIC) program is rolling out now, and will require approximately 1.2 million civilian maritime workers to carry a TWIC card. These include merchant mariners, longshoremen, truck drivers, stevedores, and other port workers. The “smart ID badge” they will carry has biometrics and other security features, such as digital certificates, stored in the memory chip. The card will have to be presented for unescorted access into secure areas of our critical seaport infrastructure, as well as regulated vessels and even offshore platforms on the outer continental shelf.

TWIC represents another large government program, in which IBIA is deeply involved. Given the magnitude of these projects that Congress and the Administration have initiated it can be seen that there is a lot of activity in biometrics in the public sphere.

IBIA is a strong presence in these projects, helping policymakers understand what biometrics can do, what its limitations are, and how it can best be used in combination with other technologies to create a layered approach to security. We don’t believe that biometrics by itself is the answer to security and law enforcement