Homeland Security Agency Deploys Smart Cards

October 15, 2002 By Jim McKay, Editor

MINNEAPOLIS - A federal government homeland security agency, which was unidentified, as reportedly purchased 6,500 cryptographic smart cards to secure sensitive data stored on laptop computers, according to Datakey Inc.

The order represented an expansion of an earlier order placed by the agency in February. Datakey smart cards and CIP software are planned for 15,000 users. Agency employees are using disk encryption and access control software together with their Datakey smart cards to lock down sensitive data and prevent unauthorized access to their laptops, protecting documents and reports.

To boot up their laptops or read encrypted data on the hard drive, employees must possess their Datakey smart card loaded with their unique digital credentials and personalized with a pass phrase that only they know. This assures a higher level of privacy for the data.

The agency also plans to implement PKI together with Datakey CIP client software, which will allow users to take advantage of their smart cards within the agency's PKI environment for a range of network and desktop applications such as secure e-mail and secure VPN access.

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