Datamining the NSA: Introduction

A short introduction to the "Biometric Consortium" - a NSA led incubator project started at the North Carolina Supercomputing Center in 1992

Beginnings of the Mailing_list in the year 1994, main players involved. State of the NSA at that time and the main incentives to appear for the first time in semi-public. List of original .mil posters, major changes of list policies in 1997. Founder Joseph P.Campbell and other NSA wits from the NCSC.

How Henry J. Boitel, current moderator of the BC-List appeared out of the box on Sept. 12 2001. The astonishing weekly news output of a single man.

The FBI, Homeland Security and the Army and the NSA. Which agency wants what kind of biometrics as a standard? The role of the biometrics industry in NOT finding a universal biometrics identification standard.

The key role of SAGEM Morpho in the modernization of the FBI's fingerprint database in the years until 2003. How SAGEM Morpho drew off the main share of the world's biometrics market in 2004 and was kicked in the butt in retaliation.

Why the main goal of the NSA's effort, a universal biometric ID-standard could not be achieved. From the "Biometrics Consortium" to the NSA's "SELinux" Project.

Data sources

Biometrics Consortium List Archive 1994-2004 [ca 60 MB text]. Containing postings of about 2500 different persons from US military and government agencies, worldwide biometrics business people, scientists, lobbyists etc.

One GB presentations and speakers biographies from various biometrics-related conference events. Roughly the same amount of data from international biometrics standardization groups [ISO/IEC, ICAO MRTD]