DIAC to refresh biometrics system

The Department of Immigration and Citizenship (DIAC) has embarked on a refresh project that will see it introduce new facial and fingerprint matching and backoffice software to its biometrics environment.

In a tender document, the department said it wanted commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) software products that could be integrated into an existing biometrics acquisition and matching system (BAMS).

The software has to be capable of handling a predicted "tenfold increase" in the number of biometric enrolments in the system over the next five years.

DIAC currently enrols "500 client biometrics ... on a daily basis", meaning it expected to be capturing and storing up to 5000 daily within five years.

The BAMS has been in production since 2007 and is ripe for refresh, according to the department.

Some components of the refreshed system - such as acquisition web services, identity resolution, database access services, and DIAC systems interfaces - will be built in-house. Existing biometrics capture hardware will be retained.

The department has committed to buy biometrics matching software to handle fingerprint and facial matching.

The software should not replicate any existing hardware capability, the department noted.

"Some additional components including enrolment management services, workflow services, reporting framework, audit services and security and monitoring services may be built in-house by DIAC or may also be acquired as COTS software through this [tender] process," tender documents stated.

Tenders close Friday November 9.