TWIC Card Holds a Wealth of Information

By Sean McNally, Senior Reporter

This story appears in the Feb. 25 print edition of Transport Topics. Click here to subscribe today.

The centerpiece of the Transportation Security Administration’s program to screen employees entering ports looks just like most access cards or identifications one would carry in his or her wallet.
 
But inside lies a wealth of information on the person carrying it.

The Transportation Worker Identification Credential — or TWIC card — is based on “smart card technology,” said Jon Rambeau, director of identity and access management solutions for Lockheed Martin, the contractor working with TSA on the program.

“It looks very much like a standard badge for any government agency, but there’s an integrated circuit chip inside, a contact interface, a little gold square, that you could slide into a card reader.”

The cards also can convey information in a magnetic strip or a bar code imprinted on them.

Lockheed is responsible for collecting the information from applicants, transmitting it to various federal agencies for review and then producing the cards, Rambeau told Transport Topics.

“We take the applicant’s name and two, what we call, biometric metrics (fingerprints and a photograph) and code that information onto the card, [and] protect it with encryption.”

The full process, from application to receipt of a TWIC, including the threat assessment, can take from 10 to 30 days, Rambeau said, but an individual applicant’s “time would vary, depending on a number of factors,” particularly on the results of a criminal history check.

“Once we get the card back at the enrollment center, we scan that batch in, and that triggers an automated notification, either by phone or e-mail,” which alerts a driver to come in to pick up the card and get it activated, he said.