by Donald Wood
Last updated: 8:45 AM ET, Wed August 2, 2023
The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) published
its Open Architecture (OA) Roadmap to help define the government agency’s long-term
strategy to enhance screening capabilities.
The OA is a technology-designed approach for software and
hardware that uses widely accepted standards to ensure interoperability across
tools and platforms regardless of the technology designer, manufacturer or
supplier.
By using this approach, TSA officials can increase the
number of available partners who supply improved technology quickly and at a
lower cost. The OA Roadmap has four main goals; engagement, technical standards
and capabilities, data sharing and organizational policies and procedures.
“Open architecture directly supports TSA’s mission and its
workforce, while further protecting the nation’s transportation systems,” TSA
Administrator David Pekoske said. “This roadmap outlines how TSA will
prioritize agile and flexible technologies that strengthen our ability to
quickly develop, test, deploy and maintain new capabilities.”
“All future contracting efforts for TSA’s airport security
screening solutions will require vendors to provide equipment or software that
comes from a common software framework, is interoperable, can be easily
upgraded and is resilient to emerging cybersecurity threats,” Pekoske
continued.
The TSA revealed that its OA vision is a connected
transportation system in which state-of-the-art solutions are quickly adopted
to address emerging threats and enable a dynamic screening environment.
Over the last five years, the agency has accelerated its efforts
related to OA and is well positioned to take the next steps to operationalize
mature OA concepts while applying lessons learned from other government efforts
and TSA’s innovation experience.
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