Brill and Partners to Launch 'Verified Identity
Card'
Travelers, Consumers, Others Who Volunteer
for Simple Background Screening and Pay Small Monthly Fee Will Have One
Secure, Biometric I.D. Card to Get on "Fast Line" at Multiple
Checkpoints.
PRNewswire-FirstCall (Press Release)
Oct. 23, 2003
NEW YORK -- Entrepreneur Steven Brill, whose critically-acclaimed
book "AFTER" chronicled the homeland security and civil liberties challenges
facing the United States following the September 11th terrorist attacks, has
formed a company with key players in the homeland security industry that will
offer a private, voluntary, biometrically secure identification card providing
access to a fast line at entrances to airports, office buildings, train
terminals, arenas, and other security bottlenecks across the United
States.
Brill's partners in Verified Identity Card, Inc. (V-ID) are TransCore,
the nation's leading transportation integrator specializing in electronic toll
collection, including the E-ZPass(SM) system throughout the Northeast, and
ChoicePoint (NYSE: CPS), the nation's preeminent provider of identity
verification and background screening services.
Put simply, the V-ID is designed to be the one card anyone needs to
qualify for access to faster lines at security checkpoints. It will allow
convenient passage for those who volunteer to be screened, at the same time
that it contributes to homeland security efforts by allowing protective
measures to be concentrated more rationally on those who have not been
screened. V-ID will also take extraordinary measures from its inception to
insure the privacy of its cardholders.
Those applying for the card will volunteer to go through a process that
verifies their identity, determines that they are not on a terrorist watch
list and do not have a disqualifying felony conviction record, and then scans
and stores their thumbprints. They will then receive their card within a
matter of days and be able to present it at all venues recognizing the card --
where a scanning device will match the card to the holder's thumbprint to
assure that the card is only being used by the person who applied for
it.
V-ID expects to begin operations at some demonstration sites in the first
half of 2004.
In addition to TransCore, ChoicePoint, and Brill (who will serve as V-ID
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer), partners in Verified Identity Card,
Inc. include The Private Equity Division of Lehman Brothers, and The Civitas
Group LLC, a Washington-based firm that supports enterprises developing new
solutions to homeland security challenges. Civitas' CEO is Michael Hershman,
former chief executive of Decision Strategies, the international security
advisory firm.
V-ID will not collect or keep, let alone disseminate, any information
related to how or where its cardholders travel. To ensure that V-ID keeps this
and other promises related to protecting the privacy of its members, V-ID will
ask a major civil liberties or privacy rights organization to select an
ombudsman to monitor V-ID's performance and issue public reports about it.
V-ID will pay for the ombudsman, who will be supervised by the outside
organization.
"Every day I worked on the book," Brill explained, "I'd confront another
example of how in the September 12th Era we needed a new solution to the old
problem of balancing security with liberty and privacy, not to mention
balancing our new need for added security with the problem of not having
bottlenecks every time one of us wants to go into a building or a theater, or
get on a train or airplane. Sure, a lot of those bottlenecks faded away in the
year after the attacks," Brill added, "but many haven't, and, more important,
there are now all kinds of new efforts underway, many encouraged or even
mandated by Congress or the Department of Homeland Security, to secure venues
like ports, ferries, sports arenas, industrial facilities, and office
buildings. Those efforts will be accelerated overnight and could become
chaotic after there is any kind of new attack."
"The answer," Brill continued, "should not be a national I.D. card. It
won't work, will be too expensive, and will present the worst kind of threat
to our civil liberties. Nor can the answer be simply to have millions of
hourly-wage, private guards going through the motions of checking us and our
bags as we move through all the bottlenecks of our daily lives. That's the
worst of all worlds: no real added security but high expense and intolerable
inconvenience and multiple, routine invasions of our privacy. The V-ID is, I
think, the real, long-term, balanced answer."
"Having a V-ID card," Brill explained, "will mean that you are who you
say you are and can prove it -- if you want to -- by presenting a card along
with your thumb or fingerprint that will verify that you are the person to
whom the card belongs."
"Virtually all of the increased risks we face in today's society begin
with a single person or small group of people," said ChoicePoint Chairman and
CEO Derek V. Smith. "The V-ID card will combine the benefits of managing that
risk more effectively with the highest principles of privacy protection,
creating a program that meets ChoicePoint's vision of a safer, more secure
society through the responsible use of information."
"The V-ID program capitalizes on our proven strengths in automated data
capture and real-time account validation which enables our customers to
accurately process more than 14 million transactions per day," explained John
Worthington, TransCore's president and CEO. "This initiative is a logical
extension for TransCore's rapidly expanding homeland security business that
provides border crossing optimization and asset tracking at critical ports of
entry across the country."
"In working over the years with major corporations and other clients in
the public and private sectors, it has always struck me as illogical that when
it came to credentialing people for access to secure locations no one had
attempted a common solution that would save money and time and provide
consistent security standards, as well as consistent privacy standards," said
Michael Hershman, president and CEO of Civitas Group llc. "After September
11th, the need for such a solution became even more obvious. The V-ID system
will be that solution."
The overriding business premise of the V-ID is that the costs and
inconvenience of having multiple cards and requiring multiple processes to
obtain those cards for various security and identification purposes can be
spread across one system. Employers who need to secure their office buildings
and industrial plants, government agencies with responsibility for securing
other key facilities, or owners of venues such as sports arenas or stadiums
will be able to use one common card, with one common security standard that
allows those who have it to get on a line that can move more quickly because
cardholders have been pre-screened.
"The logic is clear," Brill concluded. "Someone who is pre-screened so
that he can drive a truck containing hazardous materials, or so that he can
work at a major financial institution ought to be able to get on a fast line
at an airport or a train terminal. And someone who has volunteered to be
screened so that he or she can get on a fast line at the airport, ought to be
able to use the same card to get onto a fast line at a ferry or a sports
arena, if and when those venues begin more careful security checks."
Attached is a fact sheet providing more detail on the Verified Identity
Card system, as well as information on Brill, TransCore, ChoicePoint, and
Civitas Group, or click on
http://www.verifiedidcard.com .
FACT SHEET:
Overview
The Verified Identity Card (V-ID) will be a nationally recognized,
voluntary, biometrically secure identification system. It will afford
pre-screened members who go through one application process to obtain one card
the opportunity to enjoy expedited access on a "fast line" through the growing
array of checkpoints at office buildings, airport gates, shopping malls,
universities, theaters, sports arenas and other facilities.
The V-ID is the private sector's answer to the challenge of securing the
homeland across the 85% of the nation's critical infrastructure that is owned
and operated by the private sector. The V-ID will provide enhanced and more
effective security for private sector owners of venues who recognize the need
to assure those entering their premises -- and assure shareholders, insurers
and other stakeholders in their enterprises -- that those in charge are
engaged in prudent risk management.
Similarly, once the card is recognized and perhaps linked to credit card
systems, V-ID's screening and biometric verification process will offer its
members protection against the ongoing epidemic of identity theft.
The V-ID system is owned and operated by Verified Identity Card, Inc. Its
CEO will be Steven Brill, the founder of The American Lawyer and Court TV who
became knowledgeable about the issues V-ID addresses in doing the research for
his recently published book, "AFTER."
Equity partners in V-ID include ChoicePoint, the nation's leading
provider of identity verification and background checks to the private and
public sectors; TransCore, the nation's leading provider of expedited
electronic toll billing and validation services (often called E-ZPass(SM); and
the Civitas Group, LLC, a Washington-based firm specializing in helping
develop private sector homeland security solutions. Civitas' CEO is Michael
Hershman, former chief executive of Decision Strategies, the international
security advisory firm; its co-chairmen are former National Security Advisor
Samuel Berger and Charles Black, a former senior advisor to Presidents Reagan
and George H.W. Bush.
Special Provisions For Privacy Protection
In addition, arrangements will be made for a prominent civil
liberties/privacy rights organization to select and supervise an expert to
serve as V-ID's independent, outside ombudsman and to issue independent public
reports on the company's compliance with strict privacy standards.
The Problem: A Multiple Need For Secure Identity
Cards
Americans now need several identification/security cards -- to go to
work, to board an airplane, or to get into office buildings or other venues.
With some exceptions, none are secure. They do not assure that the person
really is who he says he is, nor do they provide the assurance that the person
should not be subject to more intense security checks.
This is a minor problem compared to what is likely to ensue in the coming
months and years, as more security threats materialize, prompting more
facilities to check people before they are allowed entrance. The lines that
currently inconvenience New Yorkers waiting to get into a few office buildings
will be everywhere.
Even now, during a period of relative calm, most office buildings and
other venues are in the process of tightening security. What is consistent
about their efforts is that all are spending more money and adding new
bottlenecks to the daily flow of people's lives. What is not consistent is the
level of security they provide. Few of these checkpoints have any way to
verify that the person using an entrance card is the person for whom the card
was issued. And few provide any reassurance that the person with the card is
not on a terrorist watch list or otherwise presents a high risk. V-ID will
perform both of these functions for those who volunteer for membership.
And just as a credit card from one bank is recognized at other banks' ATM
machines, V-ID will be the one card that anyone will need to move through
multiple checkpoints.
The Solution: Convenience with Security Based on Voluntary
Acceptance
The V-ID will combine convenience with security -- without putting the
government in the business of identifying and tracking American citizens. The
V-ID will work as follows:
Getting the V-ID Card
1. Voluntary Membership
The program will be
completely voluntary.
2. Screening Process
In the application and screening process, V-ID will
check each card
applicant's data against all
appropriate databases -- first to assure
that the
person is actually the person he says he is, and
then,
according to criteria developed in
consultation with the Department of
Homeland
Security, that he does not present a high risk. These
criteria
will include presence on any government
watch lists, citizenship or
legal immigrant status,
and the absence of any significant,
relevant
criminal record.
3. Accountability in the Process
The specifics of these criteria are still being
determined, but once
they have been established
they will be clearly articulated, and anyone
not
passing a screening will be given a specific explanation and
an
opportunity to correct any mistakes in the
process.
4. Privacy
V-ID will pledge not to keep, let alone share,
any data about members,
including the data
submitted in applying and information about
where
they have used the card for access.
5. Continuous Validation
Unlike other card access programs, V-ID will
continuously reaffirm the
validity of the card by
checking that nothing has changed to cause
the
member to fall below the screening criteria.
That data will be sent
electronically to readers at
all checkpoints at venues recognizing
V-ID.
6. Costs
The cost of a V-ID will be $30-$50 for the
initial application and
card, then about $3.00 a
month for continuous membership and
validation. It
is expected that office buildings would purchase
these
cards for tenants, that employers would buy
cards for employees who
move regularly through
various checkpoints, that venue operators such
as
stadium owners would buy them for season ticket holders,
that
government agencies will use V-ID to speed
entrance through various
transportation
bottlenecks, and that individuals would want to buy
them
for convenience.
7. Lower Costs for Already-Screened
Personnel
Because a major component of the cost of
a V-ID is the screening
process, cards will be able
to be issued with little or no sign-up fee
to
categories of people -- such as police officers, medical
personnel
at many facilities, and even clerical and
maintenance workers in many
settings -- who have
already met the V-ID screening requirements.
This
will allow V-ID to avoid being a program that
creates a divide between
"fast" and "slow" lines
that is determined only by one's ability to
pay. It
also helps assure that V-ID will achieve the critical
mass
necessary to encourage venue operators to
recognize the card.
Using the V-ID Card
1. The Biometric Identifier
As currently
planned, the card issued to V-ID members will not
actually
be what gets the member through a
checkpoint. That's because cards can
be tampered
with, but fingerprints cannot. Thus, a V-ID member
might
show his or her card in order to enter a V-ID
line, but the actual
check of his or her identity
will come when the member puts a thumb or
other
finger against a reader at the checkpoint, where the print
would
be checked against files of enrolled and
currently validated members.
2. The Checkpoint
Those who are not V-ID
members or whose print is not confirmed
as
currently valid would not get through the "fast
line." In other words,
they would not be barred
from the venue; they would go through
current
standard procedures (the "slow line") for
that venue.
3. "Fast" versus "Slow" Line Procedures
Every
venue owner will make his or her own decision on what
security
measures to apply to each line. For
example, at facilities especially
concerned about
security, even those on the fast line might still
go
through metal detectors and have briefcases and
bags X-Rayed, while
those on the slow line would
get more intense searches, such as pat-
downs, and
more intense questioning from security personnel.
Put
differently, the V-ID is a risk management
device that allows for
better apportionment of
security resources and attention; its
simple
premise is that someone holding a valid V-ID
is likely to be less of a
risk than someone without
one.
4. Coordination with Incumbent Access Control
Systems
The V-ID will be adaptable into incumbent
security systems so that they
do not have to be
replaced. Rather, the V-ID will supplement them
with
its background screening while fitting into
the incumbent system. For
example, a V-ID
membership could be adapted with the protocol
of
incumbent cards so that an extra layer of
authorization information is
added allowing the
card to be used to access a particular floor of
a
building but not other floors, while also working
in the lobby of that
building as the general access
card at the same time that the member's
membership
and fingerprint works to get him or her into other
buildings
and venues that recognize V-ID.
Quality and Integrity: Imperatives of A Branded For-Profit
Security System
The V-ID will be the first security product -- and certainly the first
recognized identification card -- that relies on branding to succeed. For it
to work, it must become a broadly accepted -- and trusted -- product at many
venues and among broad sectors of the population. Thus, the pressures of the
marketplace will help assure that the V-ID keeps its promises of quality and
integrity; for the reputations of the product and the people behind the V-ID
logo and brand will determine its success. However, V-ID will not resist
initiatives to regulate companies that enter this business. In fact, it will
encourage strict regulation, including criminal sanctions for executives who
violate abuse the privacy of their customers.
