August 15, 2006
Houston Chronicle: FIVE QUESTIONS WITH FRED PRATT
by David Rosen - © 2006 Houston Chronicle
Fred Pratt spends much of his week at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security in Washington, making sure his technology works to keep travelers safe. Pratt's Houston-based company, DYONYX, sells computer services that help track traffic at the nation's airports and seaports. The software also helps document captured illegal immigrants for the U.S. Division of Immigration Health Services. Dyonyx's programs and hardware help scan documents and the index fingers of people traveling into and out of the country, alerting authorities if a traveler shows up on the federal government's terrorist watch list. Pratt spoke recently with Chronicle reporter David S. Rosen.
Q: How much pressure is associated with being part of making homeland security more technology-savvy? A: The pressure is really mind-numbing because if you think you're going to solve a security problem with technology, you're wrong. ... You have to go with what's the best technology available, but it all comes down to people. We're not enforcement, but we are very much another set of eyes, and when we look at documents, the systems are in real time. We have to date about 675 hits on the watch list since we started our program at 15 ports.
Q: What was technology like in this marketplace 10 years ago? A: Ten years ago we had very little as far as a national database where you could keep records that were indisputable. You had things like passports and that nature, but there was no biometric information like digital photographs or fingerprinting. We were looking at paper documents and drawing identification. Now we do electronic fingerprint scanning, it's matched to a database, and if it's a match, law enforcement gets a phone call.
Q: What new technology is coming up in this industry? A: I think you're going to see definitely people going to move to the 10-print on an entry, where you lay one hand down and boom, it gets those five. Then on exits, you'll get at least a two-print, mainly because the intention here is to verify, just for personal security as well as being matched to that watch list.
Q: As someone who works in homeland security, talk about balancing civil liberties and safety. A: It doesn't matter what you put out there, there's going to be two extreme views. I believe that from a civil liberties standpoint you have to have a balance between what's not infringing on the rights of an individual and allowing the security list to do what it has to do. Homeland Security is extremely focused and conscious of personal privacy. Every time something is recorded, only law enforcement has the ability to match those things to a list. It's not like this information will be broadcast or used or anything in that fashion. To me, I consider my fingerprint a part of my identity, and given that I have a passport and all this information that's public on how to find me, I'm OK with giving someone a fingerprint.
Q: What measures do you take to protect people whose information you collect from identity theft? A: This information that goes into a database shows only what is on published documents, and that only goes through a database in Homeland Security. The threat of identity theft might still be out there, but it's not going to occur through this system. I really think the protection of individual rights is first and foremost in the DHS system, and the problem with identity theft exists, but not with this system.
Online Source: http://www.dyonyx.com/documents/Fred_Pratt_Chronicle_Article.pdf