SIA chair calls for stronger airport credentials

A Security Industry Association (SIA) government relations chair has recommended that US Congress take several steps to strengthen security credentials at US airports..Kathleen Carroll, vice president of government affairs at HID Global, was giving testimony before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee's Subcommittee on Transportation and Public Assets.Specifically, Carroll gave recommendations to improve security credentials endorsed by the Aviation Security Advisory Committee, a body of private sector representatives providing counsel to the US Transportation Security Administration (TSA).Carroll, who serves as chair of SIA's Government Relations Committee, called for wider use of biometric confirmation of identity for badge issuance. She also noted the need for random auditing capture of a biometric template for security identification display area badge (SIDA) applicants.”Biometrics are already in use at several airports, including BWI [Baltimore Washington International Airport] and SFO [San Francisco International Airport],” Carroll said in her prepared testimony. “These biometric deployments enhance security by tying the SIDA badge to the holder of the badge. Further, biometric technology has improved substantially in recent years and industry continues to invest in further advancements.”Carroll said key measure to ensure appropriate use of biometrics would be “liveness detection,” which eliminates spoofing techniques to bypass biometric checks, Carroll said. Liveness detection helps to verify identity through reading an individual's physiological signs of life.”For example, liveness detection solves the worry around the biometrics that were stolen in the OPM [Office of Personnel Management] breach. Biometrics information is worthless if it isn't usable. With liveness detection, the only way it is usable is if the living human being presents their biometrics.”Carroll also called for airport worker credentials to follow a federated model.”Many airport employees work at multiple airports and often need to go through the vetting process and carry a badge for each airport. In a federated model, such as the US government's Personal Identity Verification (PIV) program, each federal employee is vetted to an acceptable and known process across all federal agencies.”Multiple credentialing often requires employees to carry a variety of documents with them and thereby increases security risks through exposing sensitive information, she added.

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