-=- National ID computer user card -=- (fwd)

["Wade E. Grimes" <wgrimes1@SERVICES.DESE.STATE.MO.US>]

-=0=- F Y I -=0=-  Comment :  big brother is getting growing pains.

This should be of interest to all -=- as per attached.
''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''
Wade Grimes                  voice > 314 898 5553
Social Studies Dept Chair      fax > 314 898 3140
Audio Visual Dir CATV 18       net > wgrimes1@services.dese.state.mo.us
H L Purdin High School               wgrimes@bigcat.missouri.edu
Elsberry, Missouri 63343 0106

                                     -=0=-  A R S    WA0MHP  -=0=-

         I teach.  Therefore, I know what is really going on.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Fri, 4 Nov 1994 15:05:04 -0400
From: Rachel Alexander (General) <a-ralexa@MICROSOFT.COM>
Subject: FW: Electronic ID Card

Another National ID article

Rachel Alexander
My opinions do not represent those of Microsoft
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The Dallas Morning News via First! : ELECTRONIC ID CARD WOULD FORCE USERS
TO LEAVE THEIR MARK

  Before you know it, you may need to obtain a license to journey into
cyberspace.

  At right you see a "personal access card" whose key component - a
"security processing unit" - is made at a National Semiconductor Corp.
factory near the Hypermart in south Arlington.

  These cards, just coming into production, could well determine what parts
of the Internet or other communications networks you may successfully enter,
what mail you can decode, what you may buy over your data line and if you
are who you say you are, whether you're dealing with the U.S. Customs
Service or trying to shop at a grocery store.

  They are digital dog tags designed to provide unassailable proof of
identity when logging onto a network. They are also electronic wallets,
providing instant credit lines, food stamp accounts and other personal
wealth. And they are encryption engines, allowing you to safely send
information about yourself through data circuits and guarantee that only you
can receive and translate information you have ordered.

  "They will be where you keep your ultimate secret information," said John
Jones, director of the product's marketing.

  National's iPower cards and competitors to come are "smart cards" on
steroids. Smart cards provide a fair amount of security by putting a
personal identification number on a chip embedded in a credit card. The
magnetic stripe on the back also can store information about available
credit.

  The iPower cards have microprocessors as the main source of their
intelligence and enough memory to keep thousands of pages of information, a
variant of the kind of memory cards that are increasingly supplanting floppy
disks. A single card can scramble and safely store essentially all of a
person's important personal records, including driver's license, vehicle
registration, passport, birth certificate, medical records, Social Security
card, credit card accounts, fingerprints, voice print and available cash.

  They also are virtually impenetrable. The brain of the system, National's
security chip, keeps all encryption algorithms, secret data and the main
microprocessor in one place. Then, it protects against attacks with
electrical, mechanical and even chemical defenses. Even if an outsider
somehow manages to crack through, all the protected data is converted into a
string of zeroes, rendering it useless before it can be read out.

  If the idea of an all-purpose identification and information card achieves
wide acceptance, you could be popping this puppy into your personal computer
before dialing in to a National Aeronautics and Space Administration
database to download your favorite weather map.

  The idea appears to appeal to the federal government. At a security
conference in April, U.S. Postal Service information technology planner
Charles Chamberlain described his vision of a "national identity card,"
which he called the "U.S. Card."

  The "U.S. Card" would provide automatic connections to a variety of
federal agencies, including the Internal Revenue Service, Health and Human
Services, and the U.S. Treasury, as well as banks and other databases. The
iPower card could easily be used as the platform for such a card, said Mitch
Ratcliffe, who wrote about the plan for Digital Media, a trade publication.

  On the benign side, such cards would be valuable for keeping electronic
mail private or allowing veterans to see their benefits when checking into a
hospital.

  But if transactions are authenticated or registered in a system operated
by the Postal Service, the worst case could make George Orwell seem like an
optimist. A Naval officer buying a book in a gay book store could quickly
find himself facing court martial, Mr. Ratcliffe suggests. The IRS could
rule a lunch as a nondeductible expense long before the diner can report
that he hammered out an acquisition at Shoney's.

  Mr. Chamberlain, in a prepared statement, says the Postal Service would
never create a "program that in some way would compromise personal privacy."
Besides, he said he only presented a "concept paper" that was his "personal
viewpoint."

  But he certainly didn't leave that impression on William Murray, an
information protection consultant to Deloitte & Touche International who
attended the conference. The presentation was to "300 strangers" and left
the clear impression that the Postal Service was ready to distribute 100
million of the U.S. Cards within months of getting approval of the plan, he
said.

  He fears the worst, given such indications as the Clinton administration
effort to promote a chip and encryption scheme known as Clipper. This plan
will let federal law enforcers tap digital phone communications. One of the
problems: If other encryption schemes are outlawed, only outlaws will use
other encryption schemes.

  "A police state infrastructure invites its own exploitation and abuse,"
said Mr. Murray, the security expert.

  Such infrastructure may indeed be in the cards. Another version of the
iPower card is designed to meet new federal processing standards for digital
information. That Tessera card includes a chip called Capstone, which
National Semiconductor says is a more powerful variant of Clipper.

  By Tom Steinert-Threlkeld, The Dallas Morning News

[05-15-94 at 16:41 EDT, Copyright 1994, Knight-Ridder/Tribune Business News,
File: t0515163.203]

  Copyright (c) 1994 by INDIVIDUAL, Inc.  All rights reserved.