Australian social service agency first to take up access smartcards
Centrelink says winning bidders will lay a foundation for a FIPS 201-type program across the Australian government; Vasco token on their way out
Social services agencies are not typically the modicum of efficiency, so put an extra shrimp on the barbie for the staff of Australia’s Centrelink, who will be the first government employees to be issued a smartcard that manages a suite of identity applications. Currently, all 26,000 Centrelink staff carry a photographic identity card, a token for building access, and a password-generating token for each computer logon, with the latter two provided by Oakbrook Terrace, Illinois-based Vasco. By putting the project out to bid, Centrelink hopes to present its employees with a far more efficient and private system. “These three physical devices are [to be] carried in a single clear plastic envelope in such a fashion that the package allows all three devices to operate, but physically masks the surname of the employee from view,” said the tender documents.
FIPS 201 maniacs take note: The card will be the first developed under the Identity Management for Australian Government Employees Framework (IMAGE), scheduled to be implemented across government by 2008. Most interestingly, howerver, the bid document notes that the government “is developing a framework for a common ID card among agencies similar to the U.S. government employee ID program known as FIPS 201,” Card Technology reported. “Other Australian agencies may choose to buy smart card IDs from the successful bidder.”
-read more in this Card Technology report
