Physical Identity and Access Management: The Future of Aviation and How to Prioritize Security Through Travel Surges and Workforce Challenges
With the aviation sector witnessing a significant rebound in travel since the pandemic, it also faces a new set of challenges, including the dramatic workforce shortages that reached an all-time low this summer. With these recent challenges, an entirely new set of security risks has come into play.
While the increase in travel is a positive evolution for the industry, for airports, these changes evoke the challenge of balancing safety, security and operational efficiency in a landscape of new threats followed by compliance mandates that must be addressed.
PIAM: The Missing Piece of a Secure and Compliant Airport
How can security measures be implemented in a way that allows the flexibility to adapt to these new challenges and future challenges to come?
With change being an ideal opportunity to leverage new processes and technologies, now is the perfect time for airports to embrace innovation.
A physical identity and access management (PIAM) solution — more commonly referred to by airports as an identity management solution (IDMS) — streamlines the management of employee, contractor and other visitor identities while enabling airports to comply with physical security regulations and govern complex access policies. Airport workforces are made up of thousands of identities which are constantly faced with role, license, endorsement and contract changes — all which affect a person’s right to work. PIAM simplifies and automates these changes to ensure appropriate and secure access without the burden of manual processes.
There’s a few different challenges that airports face as they start to increase their capacity, and a PIAM solution can create a more efficient, compliant and future-ready environment.
A PIAM solution can help with:
1. Quickly enrolling new contractors, workers and employees in accordance with fluctuating airport demands
Is your airport equipped to handle staff turnover and new employees starting work?
It’s important to be able to quickly and seamlessly enroll workers to meet the new demands, allowing for an increased flow of traffic into your badging office without any complications. This also includes tenants, vendors, airline personnel, ground transportation and third-party contractors.
With an IDMS, airports can automate the way in which these workers are enrolled and badged to speed up the onboarding process. And when web-based, such as with HID SAFE™, these processes can also be conducted remotely, which limits the number of staff needed on site. Once badges have been created, changes can be made easily to their access nearly instantaneously.
Airports are a complex environment, and performing background checks, rap backs via designated aviation channeling services (DACS) and offboarding activities automatically or with minimal manual intervention is crucial to process efficiency and maintaining compliance. Compliance leads directly into item two.
2. Addressing regulatory compliance requirements for airports
It’s not just about ensuring that travelers have been appropriately screened, but also making sure airport staff don’t bring any risks into an already complex environment.
A PIAM solution can simplify screening workflows during enrollment by integrating with other airport systems — such as document management, computer-based training management and criminal history check (CHRC) systems, health requirements and more. This ensures that the appropriate information is received before granting permissions or access.
Automation extends throughout the lifecycle; changes to workers’ statuses can be addressed before someone shows up and their badge isn’t working. Examples of prerequisites that are updated include licenses or union papers, tests and training, and rap back as part of periodic reinvestigation.
Not only can a PIAM solution like SAFE provide configurable workflows to suit organization-unique safety demands, but it also allows you to monitor all compliance related data, such as building access and identity information, to ensure that all companies and their workers consistently meet all applicable mandates.
3. Continuing to protect airports’ complex networks of systems, data and employees in a landscape of evolving threats
Pandemic aside, airports have always been a target for direct attacks or used to facilitate illicit activities and must constantly work to mitigate insider threats. With dramatic changes to the way operations are carried out and further potential changes that lay ahead, airports must look to boost their security while maintaining compliance with changing mandates and regulations — whether these be local, state/provincial or national/federal.
An IDMS adds additional and essential layers to physical security, capturing identity information, pertinent prerequisites for access permission and proper controls around credential issuance and lifecycles, as well as tying this all into regulatory and internal compliance.
SAFE for Aviation is specifically designed to accommodate the unique compliance needs and workflows of modern airports. It reduces manual efforts by codifying and enforcing access rules while recording all requests, decisions, exceptions and authentications. In doing this, airports can achieve organization-wide consistency in changes and controls that are captured within a single and easily accessible system. This dramatically improves efficiency and security by eliminating human error.
The centralized and standardized capturing of access rules, policies and activities reduces the overall audit cycle and the risk of financial or legal repercussions. It also can automatically monitor all compliance-related data to ensure that all companies and their workers consistently meet requirements, allowing airports to operate at 100% compliances — including 10% / 100% TSA audits.
SAFE for Aviation
HID SAFE is a highly-scalable PIAM solution with optional capabilities built for airports. It streamlines identity, credential, access and policies management across multiple systems, user groups, buildings and regulations.
Not only does HID SAFE enable airports to easily carry out all the tasks mentioned, but it consolidates information from various departments, e.g., facilities, finance, Security Operations Center (SOC) — and centralizes it all.
Airports always have — and always will — operate in environments of elevated risk and ever-changing compliance. With an unpredictable future ahead, airports must be able to adapt without compromising security, safety and efficiency. Find out how HID SAFE can transform your airport in this brochure >>
Listen to our podcast: The Role of Identity and Access Management in Airport Security >>
Samantha Friedman is the Content Marketing Manager for HID helping drive content initiatives and brand positioning for the Workforce solutions within the Identity and Access Management division. She has extensive experience in content strategy and implementation across a variety of industries including advertising technology, media + entertainment, data privacy and global packaging.