| Title | Content | Introduction | Background | Potential Benefits | Legal Ethical and Social Issues | Security | Conclusion | References |
Potential Benefits
The Transportation Security Administration states that “it exists to strengthen the security of the airlines in the United States for passengers” (TSA, 2013). As the threats to aviation become more sophisticated and advanced, TSA must also be on top of innovation and is a key user of information technology in screening passengers on the United States airlines. The disturbing memory of September 11, 2001 and the close scares of passengers boarding planes with bombs and dangerous devices, push the TSA to make passengers safe as “the most important concern for this government agency” (TSA, 2013). Information technology and new innovations like biometrics help the TSA to ensure safety of domestic and international air travel where identification and history of a person are available in seconds. Intelligence information received from the systems at TSA must be accurate, updated around the clock, and real time. Use of biometric iris image identification has great benefits and allows the TSA to use these results to decide which flights need greater security of Federal Air Marshalls. Federal Air Marshalls are undercover officers placed with passengers on flights to protect travelers (TSA, 2013) . Information from this system can identify threats of danger and the need to send canine dogs at the airports (TSA, 2013). Intelligence information can also be used to allocate appropriate staffing of security officers at checkpoints, or see if changes to their business are needed. Intelligence information serves most of all to help decide which passengers need to be identified on the “No Fly list” and be restricted from boarding a flight. The benefit of this information technology is immense and critical in protecting the security of passengers and the transportation system. Benefits are also to passengers who will feel greater safety using the airlines. Finally, another benefit of iris image biometrics is that it offers greater advantages over “fingerprints which can dry or fade or smear” (Brown, July 2013) when being taken. The results therefore can be “inconclusive in identification but if it’s used together with the iris image, there is greater accuracy” (Brown, July 2013).