TSA meets goal for hi-tech ID

The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) is an agency that has had its share of troubles and criticism lately. Last week, however, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) came out with a report that had positive news for the TSA. The GAO said that TSA had met its deadline and quota for issuing high-tech identification cards to 93 percent of its employees.

However--and there always seems to be a however with the GAO--TSA needs to apply best practices to the program's card reader evaluation phase if it wants the system to be fully effective.

The GAO said TSA has enrolled 1.1 million seaport and transportation workers in its Transportation Workers Identification Credential (TWIC) program as of April. The enrollees go through a security check and receive biometric identification cards.

TSA previously had experienced delays in distributing the TWIC cards due to an October 2008 power failure that affected personal identification number availability for about 410,000 cards. The GAO said the problem could happen again, and urged the TSA to create a data recovery plan for just such an event.

The GAO also said that for the program to be truly effective, TSA must ensure that TWIC card readers are up to speed and able to capture all the necessary data. While pilot programs are underway, having employees with cards is one thing; actually making good use of this as a security measure is quite another.

For more on TSA:
- see this Federal Computer Week article

Related Articles:
TWIC: One success story
TSA investigates leak of sensitive data
TSA turns to biometric security for airline crews
TSA.gov and the TSA blog