Reuters: (US) Military Shows Off Smart ID Card

[Owen Blacker]

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http://www.wired.com/news/print/0,1294,47971,00.html

| Military Shows Off Smart ID Card
| Reuters
| 12:30 p.m. Oct. 29, 2001 PST
|
| WASHINGTON -- Top US military officials on Monday unveiled a new
| generation of "smart" identity cards, but were still weighing
| whether to add medical data and other information to the chip-based
| ID cards.
|
| The Defense Department said it expected to issue the chip-based
| "common access cards" to 4.3 million military personnel -- including
| active military, selected reserves, civilian employees and some
| contractors -- within the next 15 months.
|
| Officials said the cards, which include a photograph, bar code,
| magnetic strip and other identifying text, would help tighten
| security on access at 900 US military sites worldwide, including
| the Pentagon, and to computer networks, including access to
| encrypted e-mail and online transactions.
|
| "The big benefits are in the area of security," said Dr David Chu,
| undersecretary of defense for personnel and readiness, told Reuters.
| "You can know who was in a facility at a given time."
|
| He said that issue had taken on new importance after the Sept 11
| hijacking attacks and the discovery of anthrax-laced letters, which
| has prompted the government to put thousands of postal workers and
| others exposed to the potentially deadly bacteria on antibiotics.
|
| "This technology is an important tool to improving the way the
| Defense Department does business," he said.
|
| Once the cards are widely distributed, the military could also use
| them to help create manifests for troop deployments, greatly
| speeding a process that can last hours now, officials said.
|
| Holders could also use the cards to book and file travel plans and
| expenses, officials said.
|
| The military later could add encrypted medical information to the
| cards, or simply use them to access secure computer files with that
| information, Chu said.
|
| But, he said there would be benefits and risks to such a move, and
| the Pentagon had not yet approved it.
|
| Mary Dixon, director of the Defense Department's access card office,
| said officials were mindful of service members' privacy concerns.
|
| Assistant Secretary of Defense John Stenbit said other countries
| such as South Africa already used such cards to control access to
| voting booths and welfare benefits.
|
| Officials at the Pentagon and EDS Corp, the main contractor for the
| smart cards, said efforts were underway to boost the capacity of the
| cards within a year.
|
| Efforts were also underway to add an individual's fingerprint, which
| could be ready for implementation within two years, said Ken
| Scheflen, director of the Defense Manpower Data Center.
|
| Scheflen said the Pentagon's experience with the new technology
| could prove useful in any move to create national identification
| cards for the United States, but no such discussions were underway.
|
| While the military had no trouble authenticating its users, it could
| prove more difficult to do so if each American was issued a national
| ID -- potentially over 200 million people, Scheflen said.
|
| Copyright (c) 2001 Reuters Limited.

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