Pilots who fly passenger and cargo planes want the U.S. government to implement a program under which their identities will be confirmed using biometrics so they can pass quickly through airport security checkpoints and avoid -- for the most part -- controversial screening procedures involving body scanners or pat-downs.The recent controversy over airport screenings has had at least one positive effect. All of a sudden, pilots are embracing biometrics as an identity management technique that is far less intrusive into privacy and conducive to security than many alternatives.
--Original October 21, 2010 post follows--
Today, the only pilots pictured on FAA licenses are flight pioneers Wilbur and Orville Wright (MSNBC.com)
In an attempt to improve security, Congress told the Federal Aviation Administration in 2004 to come up with a pilot's license that included the pilot's photo and could contain biometric information like fingerprints or iris scans. Today, the only pilots pictured on FAA licenses are flight pioneers Wilbur and Orville Wright, and the licenses lack biometric data.
This is astounding, especially when read together with this, via Drudge: Pilot Refuses Full-Body Scan, Says TSA Doesn’t Make Travel Safer (NewYork.CBSLocal.com)
Then there's this from two days after 9/11: Police investigating theft of American Airlines uniforms, key card (CNN.com)
There's always a risk that changes in security measures will be resisted or skirted by those falling under the new rules. That's why it's always a good idea to consult with the people the new measures will affect when implementing or changing a security plan. These are the people that can make or break your efforts to achieve your security goals.
A common refrain around here is that security, biometrics and ID management are all about people.
The civilian air travel bureaucracy really has people problems everywhere they turn. Their customers/stakeholders don't like them and their employees don't like them, either. Skipping obvious, low tech solutions like photo ID's for pilots while instituting intrusive, annoying, expensive and time consuming solutions falling on everyone seems calculated to communicate the appearance of security over substantially increasing the safety and, hence, value proposition that government agencies offer their stakeholders and airlines offer their customers.
