Then the dragnet around criminals will become even tighter. A low-cost, quickly built, and easily maintained network. Local police departments or DNA labs try to match a DNA sample to records in a local database. For security, messages pass through STU-IIIs, telephones with encryption capabilities. If there is still no match, investigators use the same methods to send the query to Washington, D.C., where the FBI maintains DNA records for the entire country.
Authorities access the data using a simple but effective E-mail system and secure telephone lines.
The custom front end to the FBI's DNA database lets technicians choose the loci used in the DNA sample, input the corresponding data, and search the SQL database for a match. In this case, the system found only one exact match. Peter Wayner is a BYTE consulting editor based in Baltimore, Maryland.