The Biometric Consortium is a US government

Federal government of the United States

The federal government of the United States is the national government of the constitutional republic of fifty states that is the United States of America. The federal government comprises three distinct branches of government: a legislative, an executive and a judiciary. These branches and...

 sponsored consortia created by the National Security Agency

National Security Agency

The National Security Agency/Central Security Service is a cryptologic intelligence agency of the United States Department of Defense responsible for the collection and analysis of foreign communications and foreign signals intelligence, as well as protecting U.S...

 (NSA) and the National Institute of Standards and Technology

National Institute of Standards and Technology

The National Institute of Standards and Technology , known between 1901 and 1988 as the National Bureau of Standards , is a measurement standards laboratory, otherwise known as a National Metrological Institute , which is a non-regulatory agency of the United States Department of Commerce...

 (NIST). It serves as the US government focal point for the research, development, testing, evaluation and application of biometric

Biometrics

Biometrics As Jain & Ross point out, "the term biometric authentication is perhaps more appropriate than biometrics since the latter has been historically used in the field of statistics to refer to the analysis of biological data [36]" . consists of methods...

-based personal authentication

Authentication

Authentication is the act of confirming the truth of an attribute of a datum or entity...

 technology. Both NSA and NIST co-chair the BC.

The main event of this consortium is the Biometric Consortium Conference, held every fall.

History

The Biometric Consortium met for the first time on October 1992 under the chairmanship of Dr. Benincasa. The objective of the Biometric Consortium is to provide a forum for information exchange on biometric technology among the Government, industry and academia.

In 1994, Dr. Campbell and Ms. Alyea took over as chair and vice chair, respectively. The Biometric Consortium's charter

Charter

A charter is the grant of authority or rights, stating that the granter formally recognizes the prerogative of the recipient to exercise the rights specified...

 was formally approved on December 7, 1995 by the Facilities Protection Committee, a committee that reports to the Security Policy Board through the Security Policy Forum. The Security Policy Board reports to the Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs.

Mission

The Biometric Consortium's charter

Charter

A charter is the grant of authority or rights, stating that the granter formally recognizes the prerogative of the recipient to exercise the rights specified...

states that the mission of the Biometric Consortium is:

• to serve as a Government focal point for research, development, test, evaluation, and application of biometric-based personal identification/authentication technology.
• to encourage the use and acceptance of biometric technology in areas of critical need and also concern itself with maximizing performance, minimizing cost, and avoiding duplication of effort within the Government community.
• to coordinate technological concerns and issues of performance and efficiency within the Government in order to serve the best interests of the taxpayer.
• to meet regularly to:
  • Promote the science and performance of biometrics.
  • Create standardized testing databases, procedures, and protocols for the community and security policy organizations.
  • Provide a forum for information exchange between the Government, private industry, and academia.
  • Establish increased Government and commercial interaction.
  • Facilitate symposia/workshops to include the participation of academia and private industry.
  • Establish a feedback mechanism for issues that are exposed during the actual application of this technology.
  • Address the safety, performance, legal, and ethical issues surrounding this technology.
  • Advise and assist member agencies concerning the selection and application of biometric devices.
• to address the following:
  • Coordinate with the Information Systems Security Committee to foster awareness of biometrics.
  • Establish ad hoc bodies, as required, to address specific areas of need within the Government biometric community.
  • Provide copies of all meeting invitations, agendas, published proceedings, and meeting minutes to the Chairpersons of the Security Policy Board, Facilities Protection Committee, and Information Systems Security Committee.

External links

• Biometric Consortium official website