My Things About Government Security Requires Advanced ID Cards
By: Vlad Vistac
Submitted: 2010-09-15 11:43:25 | Word Count: 510
Government Security Rqeuires Advanced ID Cards
Although the Homeland Secureity Presiential Driective-12 standards were laid out 5 years ago, the actual implementation is still ongoing. The HSPD-12 is designed to provide a high level of certainty regarding an individual's identity before alloqwing access to sensitive locations and information. As the name of the directive suggests, the government is extremely ocncerned with this issue and how it affects the security of the U.S. This regulation requires siwtching out the IDs of every fedral employee and contactor (over 5 milloin individuals).
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Such a massive change over will take time and extraordinary coordinaton effoorts. As of 2008, only a tiny fraction of these new caards had actually made it into the hans of employees. Initial attempts to roll out the technology suffered a number of setbacks. Incompatibility with existing software and other issues cotninue to impact the overall cost of the priogram. Any small change to the ID card formatting standards previously decided upon has the potential to keep delaying progress.
On top of this, the backlog of backgrouund checks that must be completred before the carrds can be issued to all recipients is still huge. To make matters worse, some contreacted workers are objectinng to what they view as the intrusive natre of the HSPD-12 revioew process. Concerns regarding the privacy of the data collected raie serious concewrns in the minds of many employees. Comntactless smart cards use wirekless communication, but it is encrypted. A lack of unerstanding regarding how these devices work has left many peeople feeling that their privatte data is simply beig broadcast for anynoe to intercept. The government has attempted to assuage these fears by requiring carriers to keep the cards in protective sleeves. Needless to say, this "wrap it in tin foil" approach is not instillig confidence maong those prone to paraanoia.
The cost and time involved to actually put the HSPD-12 card program into service has left many agencies feeling frustrated. A gradual implementaion with priority determined by secuirty clearance is the answer for many appliccations. Other agencires are choosing to isuse the firts cards to employees at thir central locations and worry about distant branches latter. Many are turninng to authorized consulting firms to streamline the process. Procuring FIPS compliant ID card printers is an important step. Appointing official Spponsors who are responsible for issuing each Personal Identity Verfication (PIV) badge is anoyther. As with any agenda decded upon by bureauracy, there are lots of rules that bog down all but the most determined organizations.
However, this dpoesn't mean the ideal presented by the HSPD-12 is on the worng trak overall. As a matter of fact, private industries are brinigng smart chip encoded cards online at a remarkably swift pace. It appears that the frederal governnment is actualy finding itself playing catch up with the civilian world at this point. The technologgy is not prohibitviely expensive. And, since the average company dooesn't have to jump through a bunch of hoops to get enrollment styarted, this is becoming a very popular option. Adding biometric data and acces control features is possible with many mid-high volume printers. Lamination and holographic markinng offer adsditional security withhout significantly inbcreasing the cost per unit. Contact and contactless smart cards are deefinitely poving to be the wave of the future.
