Army conducting market research into biometric authentication
07 August, 2014
category: Biometrics, Digital ID, Government
The U.S. Army wants companies to submit information for market research into a biometric authentication system. The government has posted a “Sources Sought” notice. It isn’t asking for proposals or quotes – just information from well-experienced companies capable of conducting the research and developing a product.
The notice states, “The Mission and Installation Contracting Command at the United States Military Academy in West Point, N.Y., has an anticipated requirement to design, and the development of, an emerging biometric authentication system based on non-traditional modalities incorporated in existing Active Authentication research.”
Companies must provide a full description of their capability to meet the anticipated requirement.
In brief, here’s what the government is seeking:
- The vendor shall build a secure container for a process or collection of processes running on a local operating system platform for Windows 7 and Windows 8. This secure container will conform to the software design document from USMA W911SD-14-C-0002 and implement all Active Authentication desktop sensors in a hypervisor.
- Develop fusion logic that can receive disparate biometric modality feature data from various processing modules based on existing Active Authentication research — modalities may consist of any combination of traditional physical, behavioral, or stylometric biometric data– to provide a comprehensive informed decision on the identity of an individual associated with those features.
- The vendor shall address the decision points and define the algorithm parameters of the cryptographic methodology described in the encryption specification document from USMA W911SD-14-C-0002. The encryption protocol utilizes biometric features to support the ability to transmit and receive data security using a key exchange that is client-verified.
- Conduct technical and transition support for emerging Active Authentication biometric capabilities and platforms. Development of a compendium of biometric metrics evaluation criteria to be used to define a common confidence metric across all modalities (physical, behavioral, and stylometric).
The notice closes at 10am EST Aug. 11.