Department of Defense Wins Annual Smart Card Alliance Award
25 April, 2002
category: Education, Government
New York, NY – April 25, 2002. The Department of Defense has earned this year’s Outstanding Smart Card Application (OSCA) Award from the Smart Card Alliance. The Smart Card Alliance’s Chairman, Paul Beverly, VP Smart Cards and Systems, SchlumbergerSema, presented the award to Mary Dixon, Director of the Department of Defense Access Card Office and Bill Boggess, Director of the Access and Authentication Technology Division, Defense Manpower Data Center, at the CardTech/SecurTech Industry Awards Reception last night in New Orleans.
The Department of Defense (DoD) identified a clear need within the armed forces to increase security using a card system. The new program will issue up to four million Common Access Cards (CAC), which are multi-application smart cards that include a photo ID and provide authorized physical access to facilities and logical access to the DoD’s computer networks and systems. Currently the CAC issuance system is operational in 300 locations worldwide.
“This is a very exciting award for us and a very powerful enabling technology for the Department of Defense,” said Dixon. “This technology allows us to secure our unclassified networks and aggressively pursue the implementation of many electronic business applications.”
“I’m proud to present the Outstanding Smart Card Application Award to the Department of Defense’s Access Card Office. This application really illustrates the power of smart cards as an integrated security technology,” said Beverly. “The immense scale of the CAC application demonstrates that smart cards can be distributed and administered on a global enterprise level. The DoD CAC shows how multiple vendors can coexist and that multi-application technology exists today. Their entry conveys the formidable challenge the Department of Defense faced and how they met the challenge with the CAC smart card technology.”
About the OSCA
Each year the Smart Card Alliance, in an ongoing effort to stimulate innovation in smart card technology, recognizes a user organization for its effective implementation of a smart card program. Such innovative applications provide new growth ideas within the industry and will build stability for future successes. Each year the Alliance turns to its members to identify projects worthy of recognition for receiving the Outstanding Smart Card Application Award. The 2002 judging panel was comprised of: Jane Adams, journalist; Jerry Ashworth, Editor, Report on Smart Cards; Shalini Chowdhary, Analyst, Frost & Sullivan; Joe Clark, Smart Card Authority; Don Davis, Editor,Card Technology Magazine; Theresa Ward, Editor in Chief, Intelcard News; and Jeff Kutler, Senior Editor, Institutional Investor.
About the Smart Card Alliance
The Smart Card Alliance is a not-for profit, multi-industry association of member firms working to accelerate the widespread acceptance of multiple applications for smart card technology. Through specific projects such as education programs, market research, advocacy, industry relations, and open forums, the Alliance keeps its members connected to industry leaders and innovative thought. The Alliance is the single industry voice for smart cards, leading industry discussion on the impact and value of smart cards in the U.S. For more information please visit www.smartcardalliance.org.