In the Netherlands on Christmas Day 2009, a 23-year-old man with explosives sewn into his underwear paid cash for a last-minute airline ticket to Detroit. During the plane’s final descent, Umar Farouk Abdulmatallab attempted to spark a fatal explosion. The detonation failed, sparing the lives of 290 passengers.

With a smarter security system in place, the man we know today as the Underwear Bomber could have been prevented from ever boarding the aircraft.

That’s why technology company Intellicheck Mobilisa has created Defense ID, a product that allows security guards to check IDs with a single scan. “What we’re advocating is a more balanced approach,” explained Intellicheck CEO Nelson Ludlow. “You need some machines to try to find the bomb, but wouldn’t it be a good idea to also have some technology to find the bomber? Our scanners check your ID to see if you’re on any lists. If you are, then you do the additional screening.”

According to Ludlow, “The Underwear Bomber wasn’t on the no-fly list, but he was on the Terrorist Identity Datamark Extract (TIDE), which is a large list of about half a million names. In that case, they should have said, ‘Wait a minute, you came up on a list. We’re not saying you’re a no-fly guy, but you’re the guy that gets extra security scans.”

At most airports today, security guards shine a light on each passenger’s ID—but this only checks for authenticity. According to Ludlow, that system is grossly inadequate. “Think about when you go to the airport. After you’ve bought your ticket, where do they ask to see your ID card? Only one place: at the security checkpoint. We have these lists of people to look out for, but how could one guard memorize thousands and thousands of names? To have a computer check those lists right on the spot would be the way to go.”

Defense ID has already proven itself at military bases around the country. In fact, one of its first catches was purely accidental. As Ludlow told The Suit, “When the scanner was first introduced, one of the guards at a submarine base was messing around with another guard, and he scanned the guy’s ID. It turned out that this guy had been caught several years earlier selling drugs, and was kicked off that base forever.” Wary of a false positive, authorities looked into the case and found that the scan results were accurate. The technology has been indispensable ever since. “To their surprise, there were a lot of bad guys—a couple cases of people in the Top Ten Most Wanted for a certain state—actually coming onto the bases. They made several stops in the very first week.”

Intellicheck’s patented technology is the first of its kind. “The Naval Criminal Investigative Service gave us a contract to build a system to read ID cards. Not just the ones that people have at a military base—we could already read those—but the ones that everybody has, like drivers’ licenses and passports. If you flip over your driver’s license, there’s either a magnetic stripe or a bar code. And we decode the encrypted information that’s on there; we parse out your name, your address, your date of birth—all the basic stuff that you see on the front.”

The technology has other applications as well, most significantly in retail. “That’s our fastest growing sector,” Ludlow said. Their clients already include Target, LL Bean, Payless and AT&T.

ID scans can make certain transactions faster and safer. “Right now if you walk into many retail stores, they’ll ask if you want one of their credit cards. If you say yes they’ll hand you a piece of paper, and you have to provide some rather sensitive information,” Ludlow said. “It takes about 9 to 12 minutes for them to type all that stuff in, making everyone in line behind you unhappy. And as a customer, I feel uncomfortable giving them that piece of paper, because they keep that paper.”

With ID checking technology, customers can opt to scan the information instead. “Information is not stored anywhere on the device; it’s sent directly to the credit card company. Then you go to the signature capture pad and enter your social, answer a few questions, and you can get your credit card approved right on the spot.”

Whether at retail stores, airports or military bases, it’s become clear Intellicheck Mobilisa’s technology is filling an important niche in the market. They’ve seen growth for five years straight, and they’ve been recognized as the fastest growing public company in the entire state of Washington. Ludlow and his team are looking forward to continued progress, making our national security measures faster, smarter and more efficient.
Intellicheck Mobilisa is traded publicly under the symbol IDN. Readers can learn more about their technology at www.icmobil.com.