Homeland Security's Biometrics Database Is on Its Way to the Amazon Cloud

[InfoSec News <alerts () infosecnews org>]

https://www.nextgov.com/it-modernization/2020/05/homeland-securitys-biometrics-database-its-way-amazon-cloud/165186/

By Aaron Boyd
Senior Editor
Nextgov
May 6, 2020

The Homeland Security Department is in the midst of migrating its central
biometric database - used to store, manage and disseminate biometric data on
U.S. citizens and foreign nationals - to the Amazon Web Services GovCloud, the
first step in a major overhaul of the decades-old legacy system.

With significant advancements in biometric technologies - like iris and facial
scans - and computing technology, DHS decided it was time to upgrade its
decades-old Automated Biometric Identification System, known as IDENT,
originally developed in 1994. In 2015, the Office of Biometric Identity
Management began work on the Homeland Advanced Recognition Technology, or HART,
system, which will introduce new capabilities and shift the entire system to the
cloud.

OBIM officially began the shift from IDENT to HART this year, including
finalizing a privacy impact assessment for the first phase: migrating existing
data and functionality to the cloud. The impact statement was finalized and
signed in February and subsequently published in May “to align with the
completion of other system requirements,” a DHS spokesperson told Nextgov.

The HART system is being rolled out in four phases, or “increments,” each with
its own timetable and privacy impact assessment to be published. Increment 1
focuses on the underlying infrastructure development and ensuring the data and
applications used in IDENT make a smooth transition to the cloud.

[...]

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