An Austrian group (
q/uintessenz) has gained access to the mailing list archives of the
Biometrics Consortium, an
NSA led incubator for emerging technologies like iris- and fingerprint scanning.
The archives are comprised of more than 10,000 messages over more than 10 years (55 MiByte total) and include over 1 GiByte of conference presentations.
The first part of the investigation is
online.
An inquiry into the strategies, methods and actors of the "Biometrics Consortium" an NSA led incubator project in the field of biometrics. Presentation
at 21c3 in Berlin (
lecture and
workshop), by q/uintessenz biometrics research unit.
Data sources
- Biometrics Consortium List Archive 1994-2004 [ca 60 MB text]. Containing postings of about 2500 different persons from US military and government agencies, worldwide biometrics business people, scientists, lobbyists etc.
- One GB presentations and speakers biographies from various biometrics-related conference events. Roughly the same amount of data from international biometrics standardization groups [ISO/IEC, ICAO MRTD]
Datamining the NSA
A short introduction to the "Biometric Consortium" - a NSA led incubator project started at the North Carolina Supercomputing Center in 1992
Beginnings of the Mailing_list in the year 1994, main players involved. State of the NSA at that time and the main incentives to appear for the first time in semi-public. List of original .mil posters, major changes of list policies in 1997. Founder Joseph P.Campbell and other NSA wits from the NCSC.
How Henry J. Boitel, current moderator of the BC-List appeared out of the box on Sept. 12 2001. The astonishing weekly news output of a single man.
The FBI, Homeland Security and the Army and the NSA. Which agency wants what kind of biometrics as a standard? The role of the biometrics industry in NOT finding a universal biometrics identification standard.
The key role of SAGEM Morpho in the modernization of the FBI's fingerprint database in the years until 2003. How SAGEM Morpho drew off the main share of the world's biometrics market in 2004 and was kicked in the butt in retaliation.
Why the main goal of the NSA's effort, a universal biometric ID-standard could not be achieved. From the "Biometrics Consortium" to the NSA's "SELinux" Project
Press coverage:
heise.de (german)
spiegel.de (german)