The Problem With Names-Based Lists
From the White House summary of the Christmas bombing intelligence failures (summary_of_wh_review_12-25-09.pdf):
“A misspelling of Abdulmutallab’s name initially resulted in State Department believing he did not have a valid U.S. visa.”
I’ve been railing about this for a while. But if anything makes the case for moving to a biometric identity assurance system, this has to be it, no? It is 2010, and we’re literally still tracking people using methods appropriate to the 19th Century.
How would that have helped?
a. UFA applies for visa
b. Submits to iris scan, finger-printing, visa approved.
c. Someone says UFA is a threat…
d. ???????
Biometrics are on file, but you just have info re a threat, what are you going to match on?