The Transportation Security Administration’s special identification cards it plans to issue to transportation, port and maritime workers are fraught with problems which could compromise the security of the whole system.

On Monday, TSA announced that it had awarded the TWIC contract to Lockheed Martin for $70 million, an amount which sources said was far below the amount the program was expected to cost. In exchange for that lowball contract, TSA will get identity cards which are easily counterfeited, could fail up to half the time, and take several minutes to verify.

Yes, minutes. For the computer to verify.

And card holders will be required to pay $137.25 every five years for these worthless pieces of plastic, or risk losing their jobs, starting this March.

Several sources close to the TWIC program said that the government plans to allow the use of cards that likely will fail at a rate of 25 percent to 50 percent. The cards also can take very long to read, on the order of 9 minutes, multiple sources said.

A key factor in the problem is the type of card stock used to make the cards, sources close to the process said. Because of the low quality of the card stock and the fact that the chips on the cards are “virtually painted on,” the cards fail easily, one source said. When they fail, the cards become “flash passes” that permit easy entry to supposedly secure facilities, the sources said.

Other problems with the TWIC card technology and program include:

• The low number of authentication features on the cards — fewer than a dozen — of which only five are hard to duplicate, will make them easy targets for counterfeiters.
• The card program does not distinguish between high-level federal contractors, such as those with top-secret clearances, and casual laborers who work at ports.
• The TWIC procedures do not distinguish between cards issued in this country and those issued overseas.

— Government Computer News

The TWIC program has been plagued with security problems almost from the start, including card readers which fail in salt water environments, poor computer security for the system, and the simple fact that TSA plans to issue the cards before the technology to read them is available.

Some sources told GCN that they believe the contractor is pulling a “bait and switch” tactic, where TSA will get the system it wanted originally, but only after the failed system is put in place, and after the government pays many millions more to get the somewhat secure system it should have had in the first place.

So you’re paying $70 million, and workers will be forced to pay $137.25 each, for a fatally flawed system in which they’ll get ID cards that are lower quality than you can make at home, a computer system which can’t always read the cards, and can’t always verify the cards when it can read them, and takes an inordinately long time to verify them when it is able to verify them, and when all those failures happen — up to half the time — will just be flash passes.

So much for port and maritime security.

Update: A TSA spokesman has said, in effect: Oh, don’t worry about all those security problems. We’re going to fix all that. Eventually.