Funferal

RISKS in SEVIS

Thomas Dzubin has an interesting piece on SEVIS in the latest edition of RISKS Digest:

Under new United States homeland security laws, all U.S. schools have to register their foreign students in the database, known as the Student and Exchange Visitor Information System (SEVIS). This system has all the attributes of a big system rushed into production before sufficient testing could take place. In my mind, the RISK-iest thing about this story is that the effects of the problems can cause life-changing situations for people including being jailed and/or deported.

Many problems with this system are detailed in the story including files being mysteriously deleted or “misplaced”. Some advisers are telling students not to go back to their home countries on school breaks, in case SEVIS accidentally deletes their records. Students who are not in the system cannot re-enter the country. One quote from the story: “Daily interactions with SEVIS have become a test of wit and will”
Other bugs/glitches/problems reported:

• Unable to modify existing records which is a problem if a foreigner (or spouse) has a baby.
• extreme system slowness and random crashing
• insufficient or inadequate help desk technician support

One final quote from the story:

“The technical failings of SEVIS and the difficulty the government has had in implementing it undermine its security potential, Cotten says. If the American people feel safer because of SEVIS, then they are severely misled, she says.”

Dzublin’s source is an article in Government Executive Magazine which has lots more information on the system. Note that if the above link dies Dzubin claims that “Government Executive Magazine does keep old stories archived under a slightly different URL naming convention…the title “Foreign student tracking system called inefficient,intrusive” should stay the same.”