The Department of Homeland Security has fallen short in several of its areas related to oversight and planning for the use of biometrics, including outdated strategic plans, policy gaps for department-wide collection and use of biometrics, and the lack of a plan to transition a system that Customs and Border Protection uses to store and match facial images to the department’s system of record for biometric data storage and matching, an internal audit agency said on Monday.
The department’s Office of Strategy, Policy, and Plans (PLCY) in December 2019 was directed to develop plans and policies for the department for “quality, consistency, and integration of biometrics” department-wide, the DHS Inspector General said in a new report.
However, the audit found that the 10-year DHS Biometrics Strategic Framework issued in 2015 has never been updated to account for current uses of biometrics across the department such as facial recognition and verification instead of just finger scans.
“Yet, the strategic framework did not mention these technological advancements or how they should be incorporated into DHS’ vision for enhancing biometric capabilities to transform mission operations,” the Sept. 22 report said. “Changes in vetting and adopting new uses of biometrics make it critical that the Department continually review its vision to ensure everyone is working toward common goals and objectives.”
The IG cited guidance from the Office of Management and Budget that strategic plans should be updated every four years “to align resources and guide decision making.”
The IG said that the PLCY is in the process of updating the strategic framework and plans to publish a biometrics implementation plan to guide management across DHS.
The report also said that DHS components have their own policies and rules for using biometrics despite the PLCY being charged with ensuring that the department is consistent with its collection and use of biometrics.
“For example, DHS does not have clear and consistent guidance on how components should use facial recognition and for what purposes,” the IG said. “DHS also does not have department-wide consistent age requirements for collecting purposes.”
CBP is a major provider of DHS’ biometric efforts, using finger scan and facial comparison technologies aimed at verifying the identities of foreign nationals and ensuring these same individuals depart the country per the terms of their visas. The agency operates the Traveler Verification Service (TVS), a facial recognition technology system that is used at many air, land, and sea ports of entry to screen the identities of foreign nationals and U.S. citizens who opt-in to the identity matching program.
While initially exempt from using the Office of Biometric Identity Management’s (OBIM) IDENT and Homeland Advanced Recognition Technology (HART) biometric data storage and matching systems, DHS did direct CBP and OBIM to develop a transition plan for migrating TVS to HART. Later, the DHS Office of the Chief Technology Officer was given authority to work with stakeholders on the transition plans.
The report said that the CTO office did create a roadmap to conduct testing by the end of fiscal year 2020 for the transition, but the IG said the audit turned up no “evidence that the roadmap had been formalized and that the recommendations presented had been implemented.” DHS personnel told the IG that the reason the roadmap was not formalized was due to delays in initial operational capability for HART, which is years behind schedule.
The Transportation Security Administration for several years has also evaluated facial comparison technology at some airport security checkpoints. Those evaluations have turned into limited deployments.
DHS concurred with all the IG’s recommendations, which include updated the biometrics framework and finalizing an implementation plan, developing a department-wide policy for the collection and use of all biometric modalities, and that the Biometrics Capabilities Executive Steering Committee completes work on a transition plan to integrate TVS with HART.