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| Clearing Checkpoints in Transportation Security May 2008
"We enable them with information," says Kim Warren, a software systems engineer at MITRE. She's referring to the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) and the role MITRE has played in developing a database that allows the agency to track security threats according to their level of urgency. The database is one example of a growing contribution by MITRE to help TSA fulfill its mission statement and "protect the nation's transportation systems to ensure freedom of movement for people and commerce." TSA carries out its mission with approximately 50,000 employees, as well as a number of state, local, and regional partners. It's an enormous job that involves overseeing security for the nation's highways, railroads, buses, mass transit systems, and 450 airports. In addition, the 9/11 security bill signed into law last year will expand the agency's workload, giving TSA responsibility for full inspection of air and sea cargo entering the United States, as well as additional support for airport, baggage, and checkpoint security. Pre-Screening Passengers MITRE has worked with TSA since it was founded in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks and shortly thereafter joined the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). Currently, MITRE supports key programs that ensure security while protecting civil liberties and facilitating commerce. The Secure Flight program is an airline passenger pre-screening process designed to implement terrorism watch-list matching capabilities. Pre-screening passengers before they even get to the airport checkpoints is one major effort by TSA to ensure the safety of the air transportation system. The goal is to reduce misidentification of travelers, meet performance requirements, and safeguard the privacy of the traveling public. "Terrorist screening, which involves matching traveler information against terrorist lists, identifies individuals who require advanced physical screening," says Gary Forman, program manager for aviation security at MITRE. "It helps TSA apply scarce resources to those who represent the greatest threat." The Registered Traveler (RT) program, which is being deployed at various U.S. airports, offers travelers access to expedited airport security lanes based on pre-screening of the traveler's information at the time of registration for the program. "Smart cards" issued by commercial vendors verify the traveler's identity through biometric information, such as fingerprints or iris scans, and reduce the time of a passenger's security check. MITRE helped make the RT program a reality by advising TSA and a consortium of commercial vendors on biometric technologies and operational concepts. This enabled the development of a standard that allowed multiple commercial providers to build and operate an interoperable RT solution in partnership with TSA. Screening the Workforce Other programs have been developed for screening and credentialing transportation workers. These programs cover "everybody from the crew that's on the plane, to the fast food workers, to the guy that drives the fuel truck," says Warren, who serves as chief engineer for MITRE's Homeland Security Center. "We're helping them revolutionize their infrastructure to support the screening they're going to be doing over the next few years." TSA initially relied on a number of stand-alone screening and credentialing programs for transportation workers. MITRE helped the agency establish standards for screening and biometrics matching, which streamlined the process for obtaining security credentials and significantly reduced the clearance time. Safeguarding the privacy of the data collected by these programs is another critical area. Relying on its experience in working with information assurance and security, MITRE helped TSA identify private sector companies with the technical skills to address the critical privacy requirements posed by their ever growing screening mission. Sorting the Threats MITRE's growing role at TSA now includes helping the agency to counter threats. "TSA, in some cases, has only seconds to make a decision," says Warren. As part of a new strategy, MITRE is helping TSA strengthen its links with other federal authorities. "They've moved their focus away from, 'What can we do within TSA to manage every single threat?' to 'We have partners out there, and we should work more closely with our partners,'" says Andy Anderegg, senior principal engineer for Systems Transformation and Security at MITRE. "A lot of times, MITRE's value lies in getting one sponsor to work with another sponsor, more than helping that one sponsor to fix its own problems." MITRE has also helped TSA match suspect names with those on lists maintained by the Terrorist Screening Center and other organizations. "By sorting the threats and determining which ones are keeping law enforcement officials awake at night, we've helped enhance the relationship between TSA and other agencies," says Anderegg. TSA's growing workload requires the agency to constantly review its priorities. A MITRE team is helping TSA develop a business case that the agency will use in its request for resources from the Office of Management and Budget. "One of the huge challenges is how to spend the agency's money most effectively," says Fred Morser, an economics and business analyst at MITRE, who is working on the business case. "TSA is doing incredibly important work, and we want to make sure they have the resources they need to do their job." As the collaboration between TSA and MITRE continues to evolve, Warren welcomes the challenge. "It's been a goal for all our work at DHS to make sure we're continuously moving into more strategic roles," she says. "And our work at TSA is an example of how that works in practice."
—by Russell Woolard Related Information Articles and News
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| Page last updated: May 9, 2008 | Top of page |
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