Book Description

Smart cards (SC) -- credit-card-like devices that use integrated circuit chips to store and process data -- offer a range of potential uses for the federal government, particularly in increasing security for its many physical and information assets. This report reviews the use of SC across the federal government (including identifying potential challenges), as well as the effectiveness of the GSA in promoting government adoption of SC technologies. Recommends, among other things, that GSA establish guidelines for federal building security that address SC technology; that the OMB establish a policy on adoption of SC for physical and logical security; and that NIST continue to improve and update the government SC interoperability specification.