FY 2018 Maryland NCHIP

The goal of the National Criminal History Improvement Program (NCHIP) is to improve the Nation's safety and security by enhancing the quality, completeness, and accessibility of criminal history record information and by insuring the nationwide implementation of criminal justice and noncriminal justice background check systems. BJS provides direct financial and technical assistance to the states to improve criminal history and other related records and to build their infrastructure to connect to national record check systems both to supply information and to conduct the requisite checks.

Under the FY 18 NCHIP project, the MD Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services (DPSCS) will conduct two projects:

1) Under the software and hardware upgrade project, the MD DPSCS will be upgrading all current desktop/laptop/tablet hardware with the Windows 10 Enterprise operating system to provide enhanced security features and data protection to the entire network. The upgrades will be done as part of a hardware refresh for end of life equipment, and reimaging of newer Equipment. The Operating System upgrade will allow MD DPSCS to implement the targeted identity protection, credential cache protection and storage protection features provided by Windows 10 Enterprise. The Device Guard features help block executable and script based malware, an added protection to work with our current anti-virus software. BitLocker will provide the ability to auto encrypt corporate apps, data, email and website content, providing additional protection to PII. Secure Boot allows admins to run only apps that are signed and trusted (preventing malicious programs from being installed via a thumb drive or microSD port) protecting equipment from external threats. Additionally, security updates and patches will be delivered continuously, rather than on specific days, while still being managed, providing a higher level of security to the network that houses the state criminal history repository.

MD DPSCS will also configure new server hardware to be integrated with more and faster processors and network interface cards to improve processing and network speeds. The server hardware will be deployed in a virtual machine (VM) cluster to provide system redundancy and high availability.

2) Under the expungement project, the MD DPSCS will implement a new Expungement Tracking System (ETS) that will process court orders electronically through the Maryland Electronic Courts (MDEC) system. With the information provided by the court order and other sources, the ETS will send an Expungement Request to the Transaction Controller (TC). The TC serves as a hub for all messages. The message is sent via MQ Messenger to search the Offender Case Management System (OCMS), Computerized Criminal History Systems (CCH), MD Sex Offender Registry (MOSOR), and MAFIS databases that send the updated information to NICS. This project improves the quality and accuracy of criminal history record checks for criminal justice and noncriminal justice purposes.

(CA/NCF)