PALM BEACH GARDENS, Fla., and WASHINGTON, 19 July 2006. The General Services Administration (GSA) has made Cross Match Technologies Inc. an approved contractor of President Bush's Homeland Security Presidential Directive (HSPD-12). Cross Match's ID 500, ID 700, and L Scan Guardian units are now listed as the first and currently only fingerprint capture stations on the approved list of products to help government agencies improve the identification and authentication of federal workers and contractors.

The HSPD-12 mandate establishes guidelines for government employees to comply with the Federal Information Processing Standard (FIPS) 201 program, and also requires major government agencies to issue at least one secure, interoperable biometric ID card for their employees and contractors by October 27, 2006.

The federally-approved Cross Match identification products capture the fingerprints of government employees, helping agencies achieve fast compliance and prevent security breaches from fraudulent ID use at government buildings.

After being scanned into a Cross Match fingerprint module, each employee's identification is converted into an Electronic Fingerprint Transmission Specification (EFTS) file and submitted to the FBI's Integrated Automated Fingerprint Identification System (IAFIS) for background checks.

Prior to submission to the FBI, the solutions will perform a 1:N fingerprint-based duplicate check to ensure no applicant or employee is enrolled multiple times under separate aliases. Once an applicant is cleared, the records can again be accessed to provide the appropriate information and fingerprint minutia data to be embedded into the biometric smart ID card that federal employees and contractors are required to use and carry under FIPS 201 and HSPD-12.