Australian biometric system to meet national security objectives–part I technical capabilities

Foreign terrorist fighters who pose real and serious threats to Australian national security rely heavily on anonymity to gain an advantage. The United Nations Security Council Resolution (UNSCR) 2396 (2017) and 2322 (2016) calls upon the Member States to investigate foreign terrorist fighters, share biometrics and contextual information. Biometric systems are an important component of the forensic science system of systems to support the criminal justice, law enforcement, intelligence and military systems. Implementation of a national biometrics technical capability to enable collection, matching and storage, is a complex process. In previous publications we have discussed the system of systems approach to forensic science and biometrics, specifically related to the military domain. There has been no academic reviews of the current Australian biometrics technical capability as part of the system of systems to meet national security objectives and recommendations contained in UNSCR 2396 (2017) and UNSCR 2322 (2016). However, technical biometrics capabilities alone are not sufficient to enhance the Australian biometric system and this needs to be considered along with the other key enablers of legislation and policy provision. Legislation and policy are complex issues that will be highlighted only in this paper and addressed in more detail in Part II.