Objectives

The primary objective of this tender is to develop, implement, and support a multi-factor authentication (MFA) and non-repudiation logical access control system for the Department of Home Affairs (DHA). The solution aims to enhance security by ensuring that only authorized officials can access DHA systems, transactions are securely signed and timestamped, and activities are recorded in a manner admissible in a court of law. The project includes provisioning licenses, support, and maintenance over a period of five (5) years.

Scope

The scope encompasses:

• Development and deployment of a biometric MFA system based on smartcards/tokens, digital signatures, and biometrics (minimum fingerprint, with support for facial recognition, iris, etc.).
• Integration with existing DHA core systems such as the National Population Register, Service Manager, Movement Control System, ABIS, and others.
• Provisioning of licenses for approximately 6,000 users, support, and ongoing maintenance.
• User enrollment, onboarding, and training for DHA personnel across all provinces.
• Migration of existing authentication data and forensic evidence to the new system.
• Support for all DHA environments: Development, Testing, QA, Preproduction, and Production.
• Provision of on-site resources, minimal configuration requirements, and use of current infrastructure devices where possible.
• Implementation of security controls, data integrity, availability, confidentiality, and forensic reporting.
• Support for system high availability, disaster recovery, and incident management.

Technical Requirements

The solution must meet the following technical specifications:

• Support open standards for authentication and authorization, including identity federation and policy-based adaptive MFA.
• Support fingerprint biometric modality at minimum; support additional modalities such as facial recognition and iris.
• Implement PKI for MFA and non-repudiation, with options for managed or on-premises deployment, supporting crypto agility, RFC 3161 timestamping, and transaction signing.
• Ensure positive linkage of a physical person to transactions with non-repudiation capabilities, including digital signatures and timestamps.
• Integrate seamlessly with DHA core systems with minimal configuration, supporting open standards like AFIS, WINET, and X.509.
• Provision licenses and support for approximately 6,000 users, with scalability for additional users.
• Provide forensic and business intelligence reporting, including detailed activity logs, failed logon events, and transaction evidence stored securely in a non-repudiation vault.
• Ensure system resilience with high availability, failover, disaster recovery, and minimal system downtime (target within 60 minutes).
• Support data migration, secure data transfer, and compliance with security standards (ISO/IEC, ISO27001, POPIA).
• Support biometric AFIS compatibility, WINET, and X.509 standards.

Skills and Skills Transfer Requirements

The bidder must:

• Provide skills transfer to DHA staff, including onsite training for approximately 120 officials nationwide and regional IT managers.
• Ensure knowledge transfer on system operation, maintenance, and support processes.
• Offer ongoing support with skilled onsite resources if required.
• Conduct weekly and monthly SLA meetings to review system performance and issues.
• Develop documentation, user manuals, and operational procedures.
• Support DHA personnel in system administration, troubleshooting, and forensic analysis.