4 posts tagged “program”
Missouri to build interface for Real ID
This article found online at:
http://www.fcw.com/online/news/152924-1.html#
Missouri to build interface for Real ID
By Ben Bain
Published on June 20, 2008
The Homeland Security Department today announced it has awarded $17 million to Missouri's state government to lead the development of a common interface that states will use to verify documents that individuals use to apply for state-issued identification as part of the Real ID program.
The “verification hub” will act as a central router that states can use to confirm the documentation against other states’ databases, as well as federal document issuing authorities. DHS also announced grants of $1.2 million each to Florida, Indiana, Nevada and Wisconsin to test and implement the initiative.
The Real ID final rule published in January set a minimum standard for state issued identification and requirements for how data is stored and shared between states' department of motor vehicles. By May 11, 2011, states must have completed the information technology and communication infrastructure necessary for Real ID.
DHS’ Real ID program is meant to implement requirements laid out by the Real ID Act of 2005.
DHS said the system would “be built and governed by the states.” Critics of the REAL ID program have voiced concerns that the program represents movement toward a national ID card.
However, several state legislatures have passed legislation preventing states from spending money on the program, setting up a potential showdown between the federal agency and state governments. That will not happen until Dec. 31, 2009, as DHS granted extensions even to states that were prevented from complying but had implemented their own security measures that coincided with those required by Real ID.
The “verification hub” awards made today were announced as part of $79 million worth of fiscal 2008 REAL ID Demonstration Grants. DHS said it had previously awarded $58 million in Real ID implementation assistance.
"Hostile" Iran Sparks U.S. Attack Plan
Category: News
and Politics
"Hostile" Iran Sparks U.S. Attack
Plan
Pentagon Wary Of Tehran's Expanding Nuclear Program
And Support Of Iraqi Insurgents
(CBS) .. --> sphereit start -->A second American aircraft carrier steamed into the Persian Gulf on Tuesday as the Pentagon ordered military commanders to develop new options for attacking Iran. CBS News national security correspondent David Martin reports that the planning is being driven by what one officer called the "increasingly hostile role" Iran is playing in Iraq - smuggling weapons into Iraq for use against American troops.
"What the Iranians are doing is killing American servicemen and -women inside Iraq," said Secretary of Defense Robert Gates.
U.S. officials are also concerned by Iranian harassment of U.S. ships in the Persian Gulf as well as Iran's still growing nuclear program. New pictures of Iran's uranium enrichment plant show the country's defense minister in the background, as if deliberately mocking a recent finding by U.S. intelligence that Iran had ceased work on a nuclear weapon.
No attacks are imminent and the last thing the Pentagon wants is another war, but Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mike Mullen has warned Iran not to assume the U.S. military can't strike.
"I have reserve capability, in particular our Navy and our Air Force so it would be a mistake to think that we are out of combat capability," Mullen said.
Targets would include everything from the plants where weapons are made to the headquarters of the organization known as the Quds Force which directs operations in Iraq. Later this week Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki is expected to confront the Iranians with evidence of their meddling and demand a halt.
If that doesn't produce results, the State Department has begun drafting an ultimatum that would tell the Iranians to knock it off - or else.
Tester investigates the cost of Real ID act
Category:
News
and Politics
This article found online at: http://www.montanasnewsstation.com/Global/story.asp?S=8245923&nav=menu227_7, Tester investigates the cost of Real ID act
Posted: April 29, 2008 06:21 PM EDT
Updated: April 30, 2008 12:03 PM EDT
Montana Senator Jon Tester is questioning the real cost of the federal REAL ID program.
The program is currently expected to cost states $4 billion, mostly to pay for what Tester calls unnecessary changes to drivers licenses and computer databases.
During a Capitol Hill hearing, the Democrat warned that taxpayers will end up spending an additional $5.6 billion in secondary costs, including travel to DMV offices and time spent applying for new drivers licenses.
"This legal bobbing and weaving has done nothing to improve our homeland security, but the consequences for the states and for individuals are very meaningful. They have no idea whether to go forward with the database construction, to redesign the drivers' licenses and the training of new DMV workers that REAL ID requires."
Senator Tester also criticized the Department of Homeland Security's series of "meaningless" deadlines for states to declare whether they intend to comply with REAL ID.
The Montana Legislature unanimously rejected REAL ID last year and is one of four states that has refused to comply with the program.
-Jami Bond reporting from KTVQ in Billings
Arkansas uses program to check faces for ID cards
Category: News and Politics
This article found online at: http://www.texarkanagazette.com/news/WireHeadlines/2008/04/23/arkansas-uses-program-to-check-faces-for-31.php
Arkansas uses program to check faces for ID cards
The program, funded by a federal grant, already allowed state employees to scan through 2.6 million images, said Michael Munns, an assistant commissioner with the state Department of Finance and Administration. The funding initially went toward halting fraud among commercial driver's licenses, but quickly expanded.
"The intent there was to make sure people didn't have multiple licenses and CDLs and regular licenses where they could spread tickets or driving offenses," Munns said. "But it also just helps us just find other fraudulent folks too that are doing it not for those reasons."
The program uses a computer algorithm to scan the image of a person's face, creating a string of numbers based on distances between facial features. The program then screens for images matching that number within a small percentage.
Workers personally examine each match, then send out letters to identification holders suspected of having cards under more than one name, Munns said. The letter asks for them to come before a driver's license employee to discuss the issue.
However, the response hasn't been that great.
"Most of them that have been asked have not come," Munns said. "I think some of them might not be in the country any longer, that they were possibly illegal to start with and probably if we sent two letters to two people and they got both of them, they realized there was a problem."
Munns said he did not know how many letters had been sent out, but said the program has flagged more than 3,700 images as suspicious so far. He said the state has more than 6 million images stored within its database, maintained by the state Department of Information Systems.
Holly Dickson, an attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union of Arkansas, said she only learned about the program after a telephone call from a reporter. Dickson said two studies of such programs found they often had little luck in identifying suspected lawbreakers.
"When an issue comes up with a new government database, we bring up 'mission creep' — that it's created for one thing that it may become another. This is a prime example," Dickson said. "This was implemented for checking commercial driver's licenses and it's become scanning all the people who have an Arkansas license or ID card."
Dickson said the concern comes from the system snaring those who haven't committed identity fraud. She said the ACLU would continue to examine the state's program.
Munns said the program comes from Viisage, a Billerica, Mass.-based company that holds the state contract to supply equipment used to create state driver's licenses and identification cards. Doni Fordyce, a spokeswoman for L-1 Identity Solutions, which owns Viisage, said the company offers the facial-recognition program to more than 10 other states.
Munns said only a few legislators knew about the program before he mentioned it during a joint meeting Tuesday of the advanced communications and information technology committee.
Munns downplayed any privacy concerns.
"We're basically having no-shows ... which to us is an indication which there was a good and real problem there, or they would come in wanting to know what the issue was and trying to get it resolved," he said. "We're looking real close at those photos. And they've got to really look like the same person for us to call them in."
Making driver's license images able to be analyzed by facial-recognition programs fulfills a requirement of the federal Real ID Act. The law sets nationwide standards for driver's licenses across the country, standards Arkansas cannot currently meet, Munns said.
The state's database for driver's license data, built more than 20 years ago, may need to be replaced to meet the requirements, something Munns said could cost $15 million on its own. The state may need to purchase expensive printers and special stock for identification cards as well, meaning driver's licenses may need to be printed at a central office and later mailed.
"That would be a big change to our public," Munns said. "We're an over-the-counter state now. You come, you get instant gratification and you walk out with your license."
Munns said the state Legislature, as well as Gov. Mike Beebe, soon needs to decide whether to follow the Real ID provisions. The state has until January 2010 to meet at least some of the requirements. Otherwise, state IDs couldn't be used to board airplanes or enter federal buildings.
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