By Andrea Shalal-Esa
WASHINGTON, Oct 29 (Reuters) - Top U.S. 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,
[red]civilian employees and some contractors -- within the next 15
months.
[/red]
Officials said the cards, which include a photograph, bar
code, magnetic strip and other identifying text, would help
tighten security on access at 900 U.S. military sites
worldwide, including the Pentagon, and to computer networks,[red]
including access to encrypted e-mail and online transactions.
[/red]
"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.
MEDICAL DATA COULD BE ADDED LATER
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. [`EDS], 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.
[red]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.
[/red] 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.
((Andrea Shalal-Esa, tel 202-354-5807, fax 202 898 8383, email
[email protected]))
Mon Oct 29 19:56:26 2001 -GMT- pnac (nN29188754) = 1 19:56
~ how small is the smallest GPS??? ~