OBIM spec enables vendors to build products to interact with DHS biometric system

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has opened its specification for interacting with the nation’s largest biometrics database to vendors and developers. Giving biometric technology providers access to the spec enables them to create software and hardware that can interact with DHS’ biometric system, and by extension those of the whole U.S. government.

The Automated Biometric Identification System (IDENT) Exchange Messages (IXM) spec is available through a public website for the first time since 2016, according to John Splain, Senior Biometrics SME at data and digital modernization consultancy Aver.

DHS’s Office of Biometric Identity Management (OBIM) has built an automated process for validating the conformance of stakeholder produced messages to the spec.

Splain suggests more announcements about the IXM Schema and Conformance Tool are coming.

DHS updated its page on “Exchanging Biometric Data” on March 11 to explain its data sharing system. The post describes how biometric data is shared between the DHS system, the FBI’s Next Generation Identification (NGI) System and the Department of Defense’s (DoD’s) ABIS, as well as the international community.

The FBI’s NGI uses the Electronic Biometric Transmission Specification (EBTS) to receive biometric data from other agencies. The DoD, likewise, uses an EBTS, in its case based on the ANSI/NIST-ITL 1-2011 data format.

DHS shares data internationally through its Secure Real-Time Platform (SRTP).

The Exchanging Biometric Data page provides an email address for interested developers and vendors to contact for access to the IXM Conformance Tool.