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Fingerprints Not Enough for Future Security Government Systems

The FBI and Department of Defense are undergoing massive security-system makeovers that will make more extensive use of DNA, facial recognition, iris scans and palm over the traditional fingerprints for security investigations.

By Ellen Messmer

September 24, 2009 — Network World —

In the emerging world of advanced security systems at the FBI and Department of Defense, DNA, facial recognition, iris scans and palm prints will play a larger role in investigations than the traditional fingerprint. Both agencies have embarked on biometrics-system makeovers that may eventually include mass-scale DNA biometrics storage for investigative purposes.

Under what’s called the Next-Generation Identification (NGI) program, the FBI is looking toward replacing its current Integrated Automated Fingerprint Identification System (IAFIS) for a totally revamped biometrics system that over the years will not only be a repository for individuals’ fingerprints, but also store additional biometrics expected to include iris scans, 2D-to-3D facial imaging, palm prints, voice and DNA.

Slideshow: The changing face of biometrics

“We see the December, January timeframe for rolling this out,” said Kevin Reid, section chief for the biometrics services sector at the FBI, who spoke on the topic at this week’s Biometric Consortium Conference.

Though NGI will initially be a fingerprints repository like the existing IAFIS, palm prints are being added in as well. And 2D-to-3D facial imaging, iris, and especially DNA profiles are all of interest to the FBI for its NGI system in the future. Louis Greve, executive assistant director of the FBI’s science and technology branch, this week called DNA the most accurate biometric known today, along with fingerprints.

The U.S. Department of Defense has embarked on a similar biometrics project with its Next Generation Automated Biometrics Identification System (NG-ABIS). The older ABIS it replaces was basically a fingerprint-oriented system that has mainly been used in hunting down dangerous insurgents and terrorists in wartime Iraq and Afghanistan.

At the core of the DoD’s NG-ABIS is an upgraded database guarded under high security at a location in West Virginia. NG-ABIS was put in place earlier this year under a contact with Northrop Grumman. Corp.

Ken Lehman, vice president of identity management at Northrop Grumman’s information systems division in McLean, Va., says NG-ABIS is based on an Oracle database with Java Enterprise Web Services and includes a search engine from L-1 Identity Solutions. The older ABIS used the HP Superdome supercomputer for fingerprint storage.

NG-ABIS “has more scalability,” says Lehman. “We can add new modalities as they come into play, not just fingerprints. A new modality is palm prints, for example.” It’s anticipated that multiple biometrics types will help in more quickly and definitively identifying an individual for stronger match rates that add up to an individual’s biometrics match score.

The DoD has long kept a “DNA dogtag” database of enlisted personnel whose main purpose is helping identify those whose lives are lost in service. But for investigative purposes, one thing holding back use of DNA as a reliable identifier of an individual is the time and labor associated with analyzing DNA samples today manually in laboratories equipped for that purpose.