Looking long term, what could be done to alter the foundations that federal biometric systems are built upon, thus enabling advancements that may not be possible today? In other words: How could these systems evolve to be more adaptive and flexible, both individually and as a whole? MITRE internally funded a quick analysis to develop initial strategic thoughts on this topic, based on its in-depth knowledge of the existing systems. It is important to note that this project did not perform a deep-dive analysis of various options, and it does not present detailed actionable recommendations. Rather, it capitalizes on existing knowledge and experiences to analyze numerous potential opportunities and to identify those that we feel hold the most promise. It is this latter set of opportunities that are presented in this presentation. In each case, MITRE recommends more thorough analysis and interagency discussion take place amongst federal departments, prior to any actionable decisions being made.

1. © 2012 The MITRE Corporation. All rights reserved.
Potential Opportunities
for Common Federal
Biometric Services
August 2012
Duane Blackburn
Skip Reindollar
Kim Shepard

2. © 2012 The MITRE Corporation. All rights reserved.
MITRE Mission
As a public interest company, MITRE works in
partnership with the government, applying systems
engineering and advanced technology to address
issues of critical national importance.
2

3. © 2012 The MITRE Corporation. All rights reserved.
Understanding FFRDCs
■Operate as strategic partners with their sponsoring
government agencies
■Organized as independent entities with limitations
and restrictions on their activities
■Assist the U.S. government with scientific research
and analysis, development and acquisition, and
systems engineering/integration
■Bring together the expertise and outlook of
government, industry, and academia to solve
complex technical problems
3

4. © 2012 The MITRE Corporation. All rights reserved.
Identifying opportunities and driving
technological innovation
Analyzing federal systems and enhancing
operations
Developing strategy for federal systems and
interagency architectures
Leading cross-agency collaboration and
policymaking
MITRE Role in Biometrics
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5. © 2012 The MITRE Corporation. All rights reserved.
■ OUSD/P: In the future, would it be possible for one federal
biometric system to serve as a COOP backup for the
others?
■ MITRE: Looking long-term, what could be done to alter the
foundations that each system is built upon, thus enabling
advancements that may not be possible today?
■ This study:
– Perform quick analysis to develop initial strategic thoughts
– Focus on ideas where impacts would be a few years in the
future
– Identify trends and possibilities
– Recommend areas for further study.
Study Origins and Parameters
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6. © 2012 The MITRE Corporation. All rights reserved.
■ ABIS, IDENT and NGI perform the same basic function, but
their services, designs, and operational implementations
are unique to their parent organizations in the following
areas:
– Standard agreements and specifications
– Architectures
■ MITRE Recommendation: Task an interagency forum to
study consolidation options and set long-term goals.
– Common Exchange Services
– Biometric Matching Services
– Data Management Processes and Terms
Systems Engineering
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7. © 2012 The MITRE Corporation. All rights reserved.
■ Annual O&M for the big three is approximately $300M
– Originates from multiple funding streams
– Spent through numerous contracts
■ There are many common O&M disciplines across the
systems that could potentially be opportunities for
improved performance and efficiency:
– Data centers
– Hardware and software management and maintenance
– Problem management (e.g. help desk)
– Change and configuration management
– Capacity, performance, application and network management
■ MITRE Recommendation: Consider sharing system-level
services.
– Further SE analysis required for viability.
Operations and Maintenance
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8. © 2012 The MITRE Corporation. All rights reserved.
■ Each agency develops and manages its own policies
regarding biometric system(s) and data in the following type
of areas:
– Data ownership and acceptable use
– Reciprocity between agencies
– Privacy and civil liberties
– International data sharing.
■ MITRE Recommendation: Begin interagency discussions
now.
– Premature to begin policy development now, but required if
systems engineering opportunities are acted upon.
– Near-term policy discussions are necessary to support
systems engineering study and (potentially subsequent)
decision-making.
Policy
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9. © 2012 The MITRE Corporation. All rights reserved.
■ Separate agency-based acquisition processes are currently used for new
development and O&M
– DHS IDENT: Four contracts
– DoD ABIS: Two contracts
– FBI NGI: Two contracts
■ Multiple contracts are agency- or departmental-level contracts that
encompass IT activities beyond the specific biometric system
– Modifications to support interagency activities are problematic (agency
independent policies and procedures in place for years)
■ While action on this front wouldn’t start in the near-term, the long preparation
time inherent in the federal budget and congressional authorization
processes necessitates much earlier action.
■ MITRE Recommendation: Investigate and plan for common approaches to
reduce acquisition costs.
– Understand issues associated with appropriations, FAR, legal and policy
– Explore avenues to support common services and O&M activities
Acquisition
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10. © 2012 The MITRE Corporation. All rights reserved.
■ Numerous governance structures in place
– While some individuals do serve on multiple panels, there is no formal means of
cross-panel coordination or information sharing
– No long-term operational strategic planning across all systems
Governance
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Agency-Specific
Advisory
Agency-Specific
Governance
Cross-Agency
Governance
FBI IAFIS/NGI Advisory Policy
Board
Compact Council Interoperability IPT
NSTC Subcommittee
NSS Watchlisting
IPC
DoD ABIS Biometrics
Executive
Committee
Interoperability IPT
NSTC Subcommittee
NSS Watchlisting
IPC
DHS US-VISIT Executive
Stakeholder Board
Interoperability IPT
NSTC Subcommittee
NSS Watchlisting
IPC
Blue designates operations and/or short-term strategy. Red designates long-term (3+ years) strategy.
■ MITRE Recommendation: Review governance, integrate activities, develop long-term
strategy
– Identify process to integrate activities where needed and develop long-term strategy
– Explore how a single cross-agency governance structure could be created, managed
and executed and still serve the needs of the individual agencies well

11. © 2012 The MITRE Corporation. All rights reserved.
■ This study uses MITRE’s cross-agency experience to explore
and identify opportunities for common federal biometric
services that could potentially:
– Decrease cost
– Enhance capabilities
– Ease O&M and oversight burdens
■ Ideas that warrant additional study are presented for federal
consideration and subsequent studies
– MITRE is not recommending formal decision-making on any of
these ideas at this time
Conclusion
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