DHS tunes out RFID

The US Homeland Security Department is abandoning the idea of using radio frequency identification tags to track foreign visitors leaving the country, because the technology has not proven successful in testing, says DHS secretary Michael Chertoff.

Chertoff addressed several challenges facing the US Visit programme, which records fingerprints of all foreign visitors. The programme is also intended to track when visitors exit the country, but Chertoff said the department is facing serious hurdles in meeting that goal.

To improve US Visit and make it interoperable with FBI fingerprinting and other programmes globally, the project is increasing the number of fingerprints needed for entry into the country from two to 10 for entry, and will be deployed overseas and at all major points of entry by the end of 2008.

L-1 Identity Solutions is part of the Northrop Grumman team that will provide automated biometric identification systems (ABIS) to the Department of Defence (DOD) for broad use in the accurate and fast identification of individuals.

The DOD ABIS system is expected to be critical in providing accurate and fast identification of individuals in the field as part of the global war on terrorism.

It will become the biometric repository for all identification types, linking to the intelligence community and civilian agencies. The system is initially expected to support up to 2.4 million finger, face, palm and iris records, and a lesser number of unsolved latent prints.

Malaysia and Thailand have started a pilot project to exchange biometrics information to resolve the issue of dual citizenship, said Malaysian foreign minister Syed Hamid Albar.

The countries have each provided on a voluntary basis 500 fingerprints and other information on their respective citizens through the cooperation between Malaysia's Home Affairs Ministry and Thailand's Interior Ministry, Syed said in Bangkok.

Thailand has claimed there are between 50 000 and 100 000 people holding citizenship of both countries, making it easy for suspected insurgents to hide in Malaysia after committing violence in three southern Thai provinces.