Identity Authentication For Logan Applicants

Dec 11, 2002 12:00 PM, Jennifer Pero

           

The Massachusetts Port Authority (Massport) at Boston’s Logan Airport is relying on document authentication scanners from Imaging Automation, Bedford, N.H., to help verify the identity of potential new employees. The iA-thenticate platform, which can validate non-pre-enrollment identification such as passports, visas and driver’s licenses, is helping to ensure applicants are presenting valid and current forms of government identification.

The iA-thenticate system is a platform application that can read a non-pre-enrolled document’s readable zones, magnetic stripe or two-dimensional barcode and perform tests to examine ink, seal, pattern, text and/or biometric tampering. “The iA-thenticate system can extract text and pictures and compare the information to security databases, such as FBI watchlists,” says Bill Thalheimer, president of Imaging Automation. “We’re giving Logan a fully-automated way to authenticate documents in under four seconds.”

The deployment came after a five-month pilot program which tested the platform at Logan’s International terminal and ticket counters. During the testing phase, several expired licenses and passports were identified.

“The product helps us verify that potential new employees are presenting valid and current forms of government identification,” says Jose Juves, director of media relations for Massport. “While the Massachusetts Port Authority has gone above and beyond federal regulations by doing background checks on those applying for security badges, this new technology adds an additional layer of scrutiny and tightens the process,” he says.

With the platform installed, anyone applying to work at Logan will need to present two valid forms of identification to be authenticated by the system. “By verifying an applicant’s ID,” says Juves, “we ensure that people are who they say they are, and it rules out the option of circumventing the background check process.” Since its installation at Logan, Juves adds that no one has tried to use false documents to gain a security access badge at the airport.

Currently, the iA-thenticate platform is being used in the Logan administrative and badging office; however, Massport is currently awaiting funding from the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) to further implement the technology at the airport’s security checkpoints.

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