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HANNIS
 

THE HOME AFFAIRS NATIONAL IDENTIFICATION SYSTEM (HANIS) PROJECT
Updated: 10 March 2003

The Government of the Republic of South Africa has a duty to ensure the overall welfare of its entire citizenry, it is to this end the Department of Home Affairs plays a pivotal role by identifying citizens of the country.

A centralized database housing the existences and activities of the South African citizens is kept by the Directorate: Civic Services of Home Affairs. This computerized system, the Population Register, serves to maintain a life profile of each person by capturing the records and updating them on an on-going basis. It is in this manner that the country has balanced governance. Among other things, it helps to curb crime levels. If certain identity cannot be determined it becomes a real problem to resolve matters where contention involves the question of who is who. It is therefore critical to ensure that a mechanism is in place that is utilized in determining with certainty the identity of anyone individual in the country. Furthermore, it is vital that we are able to verify that an individual is indeed whoever they claim to be, thus primarily through the use of the Population Register the Department accomplishes this task.

Unfortunately, just citizen's names cannot form reliable identification properties for humankind - as many people share the same sets of names. It is a remote and yet existing possibility that people with the same names can be born on the same date as well, even from the same locality. For purposes of uniqueness, the Department employs the biometric reliability of fingerprints. Coupled with the demographics of an individual, the unique fingerprint data of each person provides a trustworthy means to declaring with certainty the authenticity of a claim of identity.

The Department has always used a manual fingerprint record system to classify individual records mapped to the corresponding computerized demographic data. The fingerprint data on the manual cards is maintained by experts who have physical access to the cards whenever necessary. As the population grows, so the number of the cards grows. The nagging tedium that comes with the duty to manually and physically reach and scrutinize the fingerprint records becomes nightmarish to contemplate. The manual system is also vulnerable to thuggish tendencies; organized identification-related crime in South Africa has proved to be sufficiently apt to produce identity documents similar to what the Department is issuing, with obvious consequences.

The massive demographic details stored on the Department's computer systems would prove worthless if not supported by a formidable complementary identification system. Heinous acts of circumventing the existing mechanisms would continue unabated to rob the country of essential identification services. The Department of Home Affairs has implemented the automated identification system based on the same fingerprint data reliability as the panacea. HANIS, the Home Affairs National Identification System is the ultimate brainchild of the struggle against crime caused by the susceptible identification system currently used.


SYSTEM OVERVIEW
The Home Affairs National Identification System (HANIS) project was approved by the Cabinet on 17 January 1996. HANIS consists of the following:
  1. An Automated Fingerprint Identification System (AFIS).
  2. The ID card
  3. The system integration

The HANIS project dates back to 1993, when the system was first conceived. It was at this point that the introduction of the Home Affairs National Identification System (HANIS), which included an Automated Fingerprint Identification System (AFIS), took place.

Cabinet also approved that the country will implement two fingerprint systems, namely a civil system and a separate criminal system by the criminal justice departments.

HANIS will offer enormous benefits to the State through a structured multi-level identification service. Firstly, the system will restrict persons to a single unique identity number which will be used as a key to identify individuals on numerous systems that are used within the Public and Private sectors. The identity card will allow three levels of verification to ensure that the person is who he/she claims to be. This verification service will be used extensively whenever a government grant or other service is required by an individual. To this extent it is expected that HANIS will ensure proper governance within the pension payment system, unemployment and health system and many more.

The official tender document for HANIS was published in the State Tender Bulletin on 6 December 1996 with a closing date of 20 March 1997. The HANIS tender was awarded to the MARPLESS Consortium in 1999, with the identity card portion removed from the original tender. The card portion of the tender was removed because Cabinet resolved that the ID Card should be a smart card and not a two-dimensional barcode.

Thus the aim of the HANIS project has not changed, however it has been decided that the technology suggested in the HANIS project (two-dimensional bar code) should be replaced with a "Smart Card".

The verification aims of HANIS are still very relevant for the new proposed "Smart Card" and should cater for at least the following three levels:-
  • Visual inspection,
  • Off-line verification,
  • On-line verification.

The above levels of verification should provide proper authentication for any transaction, which may be required for future e-commerce. Ultimately the system will have to allow private users (e.g. banks) to verify the identity of citizens without compromising its security.

The Department is currently undergoing an investigation process to draft a tender for a smart ID card, which could be used as a multi-application identification card. Initially the card will be issued with certain identification information together with additional information for one or two government service applications (e.g. Social Development and/or Housing). Additional applications will have to be added to the card at a later stage, once further investigations have been completed


Further Developments undertaken by the Department with Regard to the HANIS Project

National Biometric Standard
In November 2001, the Department organized a workshop with the purpose of establishing a national standard for fingerprint interchange and data storage format. Fingerprint standardization is an area of great interest with no real deliverable at present. The workshop attendees comprised of representatives from government and the private sector. Government officials from the Departments of Home Affairs, Social Development, Justice, SITA and SAPS, represented the public sector and the private sector was represented by local and international companies that have interests or specialize in biometrics. This workshop was followed by two further workshops where the requirements and specifications of the national fingerprint biometric standard were drafted under the conveyance of the SABS.

The drafted biometric standard, ARP 054, follows very closely the equivalent American standard (NIST 500-245). It includes adjustments to accommodate national requirements identified by members of the workshop. This national standard has been published by the SABS and is readily available. It will ensure a high degree of interoperability amongst the various fingerprint biometrics initiatives in Government. It is envisaged that, in the near future, a modified version of the ARP 054 will be drafted and will include an ameliorated definition of minutiae points and location. This will provide a standard for fingerprint minutiae data storage.


Agreement with SA Banks
Subsequent to the release of the initial RFI for a smart ID card solution in July 2000, the South African banks provided a unified response to the RFI indicating their willingness to hold workshops with the Government regarding the payment application that was to reside on the smart ID card. This led to the establishment of a forum between the IDTC and the banks under the facilitation of the Reserve Bank.

After two years of active discussions, this workshop has delivered agreements on payment standards to be adhered to by the smart ID card to ensure compatibility with the banking infrastructure. The banks, worldwide, are currently upgrading their infrastructure (terminals and POS to comply with the EMV specifications. South African banks are conforming to this trend and the terminal and POS infrastructure in the country will be EMV compliant by January 2005.

The payment application on the smart ID card will be used primarily for the payment of social grants such as pensions, UIF, subsidies and others. The leveraging of this application on the banking infrastructure will promote the high availability of the grants throughout the country. For this purpose, it has been jointly agreed that the smart ID card will comply to the EMV specifications, levels 1 and 2.
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