Breakout
TSA DHS TWIC Card 2026: What It Is Today, What It Protects and 2026 Innovation Initiatives
This session outlines the Transportation Worker Identification Credential (TWIC)—a biometrically enabled, cryptographic smart card program mandated by Congress to protect maritime ports, vessels, and related locations. The presentation covers the program’s basis, enrollment and eligibility, current scale and scope, the credential’s feature set, the smart card data model and 2026 activities to migrate TWIC to stronger cryptography, as well as plans for the next-generation smart card platform.
Speakers
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Gerald SmithSenior Consultant
IDTPGerald Smith is a senior consultant at Identification Technology Partners, Inc. (IDTP), providing technical subject-matter expert support in smart card application software, biometric standards, biometric authentication and identification, concept modeling, and programming. He is in his 14th year serving as SME to the Transportation Worker Identification Credential (TWIC) Program Management Office—a large-scale government program that has issued over six million biometrically enabled smart card credentials to transportation workers.
Smith is the editor of the TWIC Hardware and Card Application Specification, the architect of the USCG TWIC validation card set, and the thought leader behind the Next Generation (NEXGEN) TWIC card specification. He also conceived the TWIC ADVISR mobile application, allowing smartphone operators to determine if a TWIC card is canceled without electrically reading the card.
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Lars SunebornSenior Consultant
IDTP
