The CIA uses the FBI’s vast NGI Biometric Identification system

The Next Generation Identification (NGI) system is a fast, accurate, and contactless biometric identification option for U.S. intelligence and law enforcement. It was created by the FBI in order to expand the capabilities of the Integrated Automated Fingerprint Identification System (IAFIS), which identifies subjects by their fingerprints and looks up their criminal history. The NGI system augmented simply looking at fingerprints- it has advanced lookup capabilities.

The identification data of NGI is amazing, since it merged all the original fingerprint data from the IAFIS database, which houses over 100 million individual records, with new biometric data, including palm prints, iris scans and face recognition records.

In the MISSION OF VENGEANCE spy thriller, the facial recognition component of NGI is brought out. The CIA often combines AI with biometrics to map facial features from a photograph or video taken by field operatives. It compares the information with an NGI database of known faces to find a match.

Here are a few snippets from MISSION OF VENGEANCE, showing how intelligence operatives identify the bad guys quickly in crowds:

Snippet 1: Several hundred thousand Russian tourists flew into Punta Cana and Santo Domingo from Moscow and St. Petersburg each year.Corey had the CBIF-DR5 team take photos of them as they arrived at airports, booked into hotels, and relaxed on sunny beaches. The photos were sent to the FBI’s Next Generation Identification System, NGI, which CBIF taps into- a vast digital database of fingerprints, DNA profiles, iris scans, palm prints, voice identification profiles, and facial photographs.

Snippet 2: The FBI team walked in with four handcuffed prisoners. The young and very peppy agent Sterling was the team leader. He beamed proudly as he spoke.

The video “Uh-Oh, The FBI Just Got Facial Recognition Technology” explains this FBI surveillance tool, the Next Generation Identification System, or NGI. It explains how facial recognition software is a major part of NGI, and why the FBI plans to collect up to 52 million photos of people’s faces. It highlights the privacy issues as well, for your chance of anonymity may be over.

Robert Morton is a member of the Association of Former Intelligence Officers (AFIO), enjoys writing about the U.S. Intelligence Community, and relishes traveling to the Florida Keys and Key West, the Bahamas and Caribbean. He combines both passions in his CoreyPearson- CIA Spymaster series. Check out his latest spy thriller: MISSION OF VENGEANCE.

Originally published at https://osintdaily.blogspot.com.