The Secure Workers Access Consortium (SWAC) has announced the deployment of AssureTec’s AssureID to instantly authenticate the identification documents SWAC applicants present when enrolling for membership at a SWAC Processing Center.

SWAC, a unique cooperative security programme developed in response to the critical security issues posed after 9/11, helps to ensure that contracted workers who require access to designated secure areas, sensitive facilities, or work sites are known, well-trained, and have a threat-free history in accordance with federal standards.

According to AssureTec, SWAC is an industry-wide cooperative program, which represents a growing regional community of facility owners, labour organisations, and contractors who voluntarily assure the identity and criminal background of their workers.

To validate them, SWAC applicants must present government issued identification credentials such as a social security card, driver’s license, passport, visa, and/or other federal, state, and local government IDs during their initial enrolment process.

AssureID says its fraud detection technology, now at the World Trade Center SWAC Processing Center, indicates whether these credentials are authentic or fraudulent. Additionally, AssureID identifies the issuer, the type of document, captures all of the biographic and documentation information, and analyses the features of the document to determine in seconds whether a document is valid.

AssureID’s authentication technology is used to screen enrolment documents for the Transportation Workers Identity Credential (TWIC) and most of the US Government HSPD-12 credentialing and secure access programs.

“We are pleased to cooperate with SWAC in enhancing the security of their Secure Worker Program by the addition of AssureID document screening technology,” says Dr Bruce Reeves, CEO of AssureTec. “AssureTec believes that SWAC is leading the way toward a cooperative industry wide interoperable credentialing paradigm which allows the free safe movement of workers between projects and employment opportunities.”

SWAC has been in operation for more than five years, and is a personnel assurance programme for sensitive worksites throughout the New York and New Jersey Metro Area including the World Trade Center complex, NY/NJ airports, rail and bus terminals, bridges, and other transportation facilities to ensure contracted workers are known, and threat free. Transportation agencies such as the Port Authority of NY & NJ (PANYNJ), Metropolitan Transit Authority (MTA), New Jersey Transit (NJT), and The New Jersey Turnpike Authority (NJTA) have adopted SWAC as the regional standard for access control to sensitive facilities, critical infrastructures and key national resources.