TWIC Pilots Launched For Airport, Seaport Access Control

Nov 12, 2003 12:00 PM, Jacqueline Emigh

Through a federally-led public/private partnership, the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) is evaluating the use of five different card technologies for access control at airports, seaports, trucking, pipeline and other U.S. transportation facilities.

Known as the Transportation Workers Identification Credential (TWIC) program, the partnership is aimed at establishing a secure ID for transportation workers who need to access secure areas. TSA and its partners are currently conducting TWIC pilot tests on both the East and West coasts. Test sites are in Delaware; New Jersey; Philadelphia; and Los Angeles/Long Beach, Calif.

Magnetic stripe, optical medical, smart chip, and single and 2D barcodes are among the technologies being examined, TWIC program manager Elaine Charney says.

The card technologies are being tested at vehicle gates, unmanned personnel turnstiles, and truck multi-lanes, as well as at door and building access points. TWIC will ultimately ride on top of a nationwide secure wide area network (WAN) called a virtual private network (VPN). The program will use a central database allowing access to criminal records, background checks and watch lists, Charney says.

Charney claims far-reaching benefits for TWIC. On the security side, TWIC will result in easier detection of false credentials and reduced intrusion attempts. In terms of technology, TWIC will lower card failure rates, while improving the reliability of IT systems and enabling threat alerts across a nationwide system.

Charney also points to increased satisfaction among transportation worker “stakeholders,” and cost efficiencies that will help contain spending on background checks and credentialing.

TWIC’s current five-month technology evaluation stage comes after three months of planning, and will be followed by a seven-month prototype phase. In April, Adm. James J. Loy, TSA Administrator, announced the award of a $3.8 million contract to Maximus (Reston, Va.) as lead contractor for the evaluation stage.

“We haven’t gotten to biometrics yet, but we’ll do so during the prototype phase,” Charney says. Ultimately, biometrics will be used to help match individual transportation workers to authorized access levels and clearances.

Also during the prototype phase, TWIC plans to do tests around “business processes” such as enrollment centers, background checks, watch lists, claimed ID, cost sharing and privacy issues. To help guard privacy, for example, computerized data will be encrypted.

“We will also evaluate a centralized card production site to provide high-capacity card production, personalization, and issuance services to reduce regional production requirements,” Charney says. “We are investigating the benefits of leveraging the current investment in federal card production facilities, based on the INS model,” she adds.

For interoperability’s sake, the TWIC card architecture will comply with the federal government’s GSC-IS standard, first approved in 2002.

Cards will also use a “contact chip, migrating to contactless capability,” according to Charney. “Contactless is an obvious requirement,” she notes. “Truck drivers can’t jump out of their cabs.” Java technology is being considered, too.

In the interests of cost savings, though, the cards will use a commercial off-the-shelf (COTS)-based architecture, and will integrate with existing legacy systems.

TWIC is still looking into enrollment issues, as well as what kinds of source documents to use for claimed identity and “how to recognize fake documents,” Charney acknowledges.

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© 2008 Penton Media Inc.

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