DHS to Move Biometric Data on Hundreds of Millions of People to Amazon Cloud
DHS to Move Biometric Data on Hundreds of Millions of People to
Amazon Cloud
By Jack CorriganJUNE 19, 2019
The department seeks a new platform to identify
people using fingerprints, irises and faces, and eventually DNA, palm prints,
scars and tattoos.
The Homeland Security Department is
looking to upgrade the software it uses to analyze biometric data on hundreds
of millions of people around the globe, and it plans to store that information
in Amazon’s cloud.
The agency’s Office of Biometric
Identity Management will replace its legacy biometric analysis platform, called
the Automated Biometric Identification System, or IDENT, with a new, more
robust system hosted by Amazon Web Services, according to a request for
information released Monday.
IDENT essentially serves as an
enterprisewide clearinghouse for troves of biometric and biographic data
collected by the Transportation Security Administration, Customs and Border
Protection, Secret Service and other Homeland Security components. The system
links fingerprint, iris and face data to biographic information, allowing
officials to quickly identify suspected terrorists, immigration violators,
criminals and anyone else included in their databases.
In total, IDENT contains information
on more than 250 million people, a Homeland Security spokesperson told Nextgov.
According to the solicitation,
Homeland Security is in the process of replacing IDENT with the Homeland
Advanced Recognition Technology System, or HART. The new system will include
the same biometric recognition features as its predecessor, and potentially additional
tools that could identify individuals based on DNA, palm prints, scars,
physical markings and tattoos.
Whereas IDENT stores records in
government-run data centers, the Homeland Security solicitation states “HART
will reside in the Amazon Web Services (AWS) FedRAMP certified GovCloud.”
Further, “biometric matching capabilities for fingerprint, iris, and facial
matching will be integrated with HART in the Amazon Web Services GovCloud.”
Amazon Web Services will also store HART’s biometric image data.
Amazon Web Services’ GovCloud US-East
and US-West regions are
data centers specifically built by the company to house some of the government’s
most restricted information. AWS is no stranger to hosting sensitive government
data, having already claimed the CIA, Defense Department, NASA and
other federal agencies as customers in part because
of perceived security improvements over government legacy systems.
When reached for comment, an AWS
spokesperson referred inquiries to DHS.
In 2018, Northrop Grumman won a $95 million contract to
develop the first two stages of the HART system, and its contract is set to
expire in 2021. The department plans to use responses to the latest
solicitation to inform its strategy for further developing the platform, the
DHS spokesperson said.
Specifically, officials are asking
vendors for ideas on how to build those multiple identification functions into
the new system, while leaving room to add any new recognition “modalities” as
they arise. Officials also want input on developing a handful of general reporting,
analytics and search tools, as well as desktop and mobile web portals where
Homeland Security employees can access the system.
Interested vendors must respond to
the request by July 17.
In addition to the hundreds of
millions of records stored locally in its IDENT system, Homeland Security can
also access swaths of biometric information housed at other agencies.
According to the solicitation, the
agency shares biometric data and technology with the Defense Department and the
FBI, which can access some 640 million photos for
its own facial recognition operations. Officials also said they can tap into
the State Department’s Consular Consolidated Database—which contained nearly
500 million passport, visa and expat records as of 2016—as
well as the databases of “several foreign governments as well as state, local,
tribal and territorial law enforcement agencies.”
The government’s use of biometric
technology, particularly facial
recognition, has come under sharp scrutiny in recent months. Members
of the House Oversight Committee have expressed broad bipartisan support for
reining in the use of biometrics at agencies like the FBI, and on Monday, a
group of lawmakers raised concerns about
CBP’s expanding facial recognition program.
Comments
Post a Comment