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GCN Home > 09/15/03 issue

DOD sets 2010 deadline for biometrics use

By Dawn S. Onley, GCN Staff

By 2010, the Defense Department plans to use biometrics in all systems to improve security, according to a memorandum released late last month by the department’s Biometrics Management Office.

“This is an important step toward establishing a single biometric system across the DOD enterprise,” said Linda Dean, director of biometrics management.

Dean’s office is focusing on standards. It’s “the only way to ensure that the components are interoperable, the systems are integrated and the processes are consistent,” Dean said.

The memo, signed by deputy secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz, directs the Biometrics Management Office to develop a scalable biometrics component for the Global Information Grid, the department’s worldwide information infrastructure.

“The technologies have the potential to provide deep and multilayered protection, especially in combination with traditional security tools and methods like firewalls, smart cards and public-key infrastructure,” Dean said.