DoW forensic, biometric, and related identity standards are prescribed to enable the U.S. government and international partners to efficiently and effectively exchange information across DoW mission areas - warfighter, business, and intelligence. DFBA's Standards Function champions the standards development and adoption at DoW, national, and international levels by coordinating with DoW components, U.S. government agencies, and international organizations to develop national and international forensic and biometric standards.
DFBA advocates DoW interests through active participation in national and international standards bodies. Nationally, it leads the DoW Forensics and Biometrics Standards Working Group (FBSWG) and co-chairs the Forensics and Biometrics Technical Working Group (FBTWG) to coordinate and build consensus on biometrics standards development, recommend standards for DoW adoption, and provides guidance for consistent standards implementation. Internationally, the Standards Function participates in the International Organizational for Standardization/International Electrotechnical Commission (ISO/IEC) Joint Technical Committee (JTC-1) Subcommittee on Biometrics (SC-37) and ISO Technical Committee (TC) 272 Forensics Sciences to represent U.S. interests in the development and promulgation of Biometric Standards and Forensics Standards respectively. Biometric standards agreements are also coordinated with North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and the American, British, Canadian, Australian, and New Zealand (ABCANZ) Armies to ensure interoperability among alliance nations. DFBA works with the test and evaluation (T&E) community to develop biometrics testing and evaluation methodologies and tools. It registers all approved biometric standards and profiles with the DoW Information Technology Standards Registry (DISR) and the Intelligence Community Standards Registry (ICSR) or Enterprise Registry and Repository (ER2). Within the forensics standards community, DFBA also participates in several Standards Development Organizations (SDOs) to develop process standards governing forensic activity. Additionally, DFBA coordinates with multiple Defense Forensics Enterprise (DFE) organizations, including the Military Criminal Investigative Organizations (MCIOs), to maximize interoperability and efficiency when exchanging forensic data within the DoW.
DFBA is leading an effort to analyze, prioritize, evaluate, advocate and migrate mandated national standards to approved international standards to mitigate: (1) the disparity that exists between forensic and biometric standards adopted by DoW and U.S. government agencies; (2) compatibility issues between national and international biometric standards; (3) the development of interoperable forensics standards to be used across the enterprise.
DFBA is actively participating in the development of Identity Management standards to ensure compliance with enterprise requirements and mandated policies (e.g., HSPD-12, HSPD-24) and will help DFBA adopt standards that are essential to the DoW mission.