Jane Edwards
The Department of Homeland Security’s office of biometric identity management has started moving its biometric database to Amazon Web Services’ GovCloud environment with the release of a privacy impact assessment for the first of four phases of the migration process, Nextgov reported Wednesday.
OBIM is replacing its legacy Automated Biometric Identification System, also known as IDENT, with the cloud-based Homeland Advanced Recognition Technology system, which is being implemented in four increments. The HART program’s first increment focuses on transferring functionality and data to the cloud and is being carried out by Northrop Grumman under a $95M contract.
“HART Increment 1 implements a new data architecture, which includes conceptual, logical, and physical data models, a data management plan, and physical storage of records where each associated record may have multiple associated biometric modality images,†the PIA reads.
DHS expects HART to become a biometric system of record by the end of fiscal year 2020, but a spokesperson for OBIM told the publication the COVID-19 pandemic might push back that schedule to the end of the calendar year.
