LOS ANGELES - Security agents at the Port of Long Beach Container Terminal face a difficult challenge in blocking unauthorized people from entering secure areas. In fact, many transportation workers must carry a different identification card for each facility they access.
Now leaders of the U.S. Transportation Security Administration (TSA) are testing a biometric ID card called the Transportation Worker Identity Credential (TWIC) Program as a possible solution. Over the next seven months, the program will expand to 34 sites in six states.
The TWIC is a tamper-resistant credential that contains biometric information about the holder that renders the card useless to anyone other than the rightful owner. Using this biometric data, each transportation facility can verify the identity of a worker and prevent unauthorized individuals from accessing secure areas.
The card protects that data with security features such as guilloche patterns, microtext, UV printing, and holographic overlays. It implements the data with technology including three chips (holding 72, 64, and 4 kilobytes of data), a magnetic stripe, two-dimensional barcode, serial number, and digital photo.
“TWIC is a significant enhancement that will prevent terrorists and other unauthorized persons from gaining access to sensitive areas of the nation’s transportation system,” says Under Secretary for Border and Transportation Security Asa Hutchinson. “Developing the prototype for this new technology is another step in TSA’s continuing effort to enhance security in all modes of transportation.”
After Long Beach, TSA leaders will roll the TWIC program out to workers at three other sites: the Philadelphia Maritime Exchange in Pennsylvania, and the Port of Pensacola and Port Canaveral in Florida. In the weeks following, as many as 200,000 workers from maritime, rail, aviation, and ground modes of transportation are expected to participate.
The TSA and the U.S. Coast Guard are drafting rules to implement the TWIC for maritime workers, based on the lessons they learn in this prototype phase. For more information, see www.tsa.gov.
