The Department of Defense has created a trial program allowing employee IDs to be used to pay for public transit
The U.S. Departments of Defense and Agriculture are extending employees’ secure ID cards to incorporate other features like transit payments and computer access, according to Federal News Radio.
The station says that DoD employees have used their ID cards to log onto department computers since 2007, and some are now testing a pilot program which allows employees to use their access cards to ride the Salt Lake City transit system. Officials also say there are also plans to add debit functions to the cards.
USDA officials told Federal News Radio they are working to integrate computer log-ons and passwords. By next year, more than 50 applications will require employees to use the ID cards for access.
"We have a least 200 people manually doing network and application provisioning and probably just as many doing it for physical access control," Owen Unangst, USDA’s director of Innovations and Operational Architecture, told the station. "Once we have this implemented, about 65 to 70 percent of that work can be automated.
Both of the programs are a continuation of Homeland Security Presidential Directive 12. Nextgov.com says that the policy – ordered by President George W. Bush – created a federal standard of identification to help secure government buildings and information.
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