Department of Defense (DOD) Automated Biometric Identification System (ABIS) Version 1.2: Initial Operational Test and Evaluation Report

This report provides the Director, Operational Test and Evaluation DOTE assessment on the operational effectiveness, operational suitability, and cybersecurity of the Department of Defense DOD Automated Biometric Identification System ABIS version 1.2 v1.2. This evaluation is based upon data from the Initial Operational Test and Evaluation IOTE that the Army Test and Evaluation Command ATEC conducted in two phases in August and October 2014 at the Biometrics Identification Management Activity BIMA in Clarksburg, West Virginia. ABIS v1.2 is operationally effective, not operationally suitable, and not survivable. ABIS v1.2 is operationally effective. ABIS v1.2 successfully processed approximately 130,000 biometric and latent fingerprint submissions during the two-phase test. The received and processed multi-modal biometric and latent submissions, stored in standardized formats, matched submissions against stored records, shared match responses in accordance with mission timeliness requirements while complying with national and international sharing agreements, and issued alerts whenever incoming submissions successfully matched against an identity on the DOD master watchlist. A key improvement of ABIS v1.2 compared to the previously fielded version ABIS version 1.0 is a reduction in the number of biometric submissions requiring review by specially trained examiner personnel, which is attributable to an enhanced matching algorithm. However, improperly formatted responses affected biometric information sharing with the Department of Homeland Security DHS and the United Kingdom. ABIS v1.2 is not operationally suitable. The system experienced 17 essential function failures EFFs that required system administrator support during the test, leading to a mean time between essential function failure MTBEFF of only 39 hours.