Friday, June 19, 2009

TWIC Cards Come to Texas

c/o BiometricNews

A Newer Type Of Security Card

Texas And Security Revisited

Some time ago, I had written a Posting about the state of Texas implementing what is known as the "Transportation Worker Identification Credential" or also known as the "TWIC Card". I have also written about this type of Security Card in other Postings as well, and even talked about it in yesterday’s Posting.

The state of Texas has now implemented this TWIC Card, utilizing technology from Datastrip and the software component from a Biometrics/Security Vendor known as "Codebench, Inc.". With this Security Solution in place, the Port of Houston Authority (also known as the "PHA") has registered almost 7,000 people into this program.

Here are some details: "To comply with federal TWIC guidelines, all longshoremen, truckers, steamship line personnel, stevedores and vendors requiring access to PHA restricted areas must carry a TWIC card. To meet the April 15 compliance deadline, PHA initiated an aggressive outreach program through which authorities visited trucking companies to remotely enroll drivers using Datastrip’s mobile readers . . . Once back at the port, the data was transmitted from the handheld devices to the port’s existing AMAG Symmetry physical access control system (PACS). The PIVCheck Certificate Manager software checks cardholder data against the TSA hotlist twice daily and notifies PHA if a cardholder appears on the list." (SOURCE: http://www.findbiometrics.com/press-release/5978).

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