greatest in number of us have gone between the walls of the transformation by now: Stand in line at the military personnel flight.

greatest in number of us have gone between the walls of the transformation by now: Stand in line at the military personnel flight. Hand throughout the old green identification card. Sit for a photo. poke in some probably now-forgotten pass digest on a keypad linked to something we have no direction about. Walk out with a piece of white plastic bearing our grinning mug curiously brassy and shiny computer chip and a leash of bar codes.

Now what?

Welcome to e-signature

For about couple years, the Defense Department has been pushing active office people to trade in their of long date military identification cards for the of the present day Public Key Infrastructure card. The Air Force is onward track to have all active office IDs switched out by October.

And while the changeover may look like a big push for something as relatively mundane as simply changing identification cards, Air Force officials say it heralds the dawn of a more insured era of computer and personal communications.

"It's not just an ID card," said Col Michael Ennis, commander of the Air Force's Cryptologic plans Group in San Antonio. "The [card] is the primary token for not simply personal identification, but will also be the lock opener to computer network access and, ultimately, most numerous forms of access requiring security."

The transition to the modern "common access card"--as the ID cards are called--began in 2000 after the federal restraint issued guidelines for using electronic signatures forward all forms of government computer information exchange. These "e-signatures" are used to authenticate information sender and receivers, and be of use to as a very potent even of security to prevent hackers and identity thieves from accessing control systems.

Basically, the card contains encryption that identifies the user. Eventually, each computer in the Air Force will have a small device called a "reader" attached to it. The user accesses the computer by means of inserting his or her card in the reader, and going in consequence of the traditional login process.

each piece of correspondence or computer transaction will carry the encryption showing who accessed the computer

"The flexibility this provides, along with the security, is just an unbeatable combination," said Greg Garcia, director of information assurance with the cluster "The card can provide a vast array of security possibilities, as well as allowing for signatures, tracking documents, online vendor processing--there really is an untapped potential for this product"

Myths and realities

Since they are dealing with a proceeds as personal and valuable as identification cards, the program developer have scamper into a lot of urban doubtful narratives about the card, Garcia said. For example, a certain believe the card contains all personnel records, medical records or on the same level the user's DNA sequence.

Garcia laughs about the urban fictions saying the new cards contain the same information as the ancient cards, as well as a digitized electronic signature. if it be not that he admits the card could do more.

"It's all possible," he said. "In fact, the limitation to doing those things, like carrying all personnel records in succession the card or whatever, isn't in the technology. It's in the policy."

DOD policy is restrictive, he said. Any efforts to present more information on the card will require a substantial "mind-set change," and would mean convincing the bulk of mankind the military wants to streamline customer service and access to information and not provide another means of keeping tabs onward its people.

"We're not about Big Brother," Garcia said, "though it's reasonable for what cause [i]or[/i] reason people might think otherwise."

The possibilities of coming events applications are intriguing, however. For example, the cryptologic dispose is working with researchers to perform the operations indicated in biometric readers that will use a combination of the card and retina scans or palm prints to grant access to insured facilities.

The day may arrive Ennis said, when an airman simply slides his or her card from one side a reader and looks in a retina scanner to access a building, or on the same level to view medical records.

"We aren't limited from our capacity," he said. "The security this could provide could be phenomenal."

In the meantime

The existing focus is on computers, Ennis said. When it's all said and done, more than 700000 family will have common access cards, and each card will have a digital signature.

The nearest step is installing card readers in succession computers throughout the Air Force. Several bases have started using the cards in succession a limited basis, mainly in succession computer systems with high security values. The working assemblage in San Antonio even rushed delivered cards and readers to forces in Southwest Asia when Central Command wanted to make secure the security of its computer a whole s during the Afghanistan campaign, Ennis said.

The Air Force will ne to make fully convinced all the systems are "talking" to each other, Garcia said. That dumfounds a big hurdle.

"We're mindful of legacy systems" he said. "Some connected views and networks will need to upgrade to come together this technology, and that's not always cheap. We'll have to integrate as we go"