IfG.CC -
Institute for eGovernment

State Sen. Joe Simitian (D) is ramping up his efforts to persuade the state legislature to approve his Identity Information Protection Act of 2005, SB628. The measure would prohibit use of RFID for three years for driver’s licenses and student identification, library and health insurance cards.

An RFID chip the size of two grains of rice and encased in a glass container was implanted in back of the right arm near the elbow of John Halamka, CIO of Harvard Medical School, just before Christmas.

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), a non-regulatory agency of the U.S. Department of Commerce (DOC), released this week its guidelines describing the various risks to data security and personal privacy that RFID deployments may pose, while also providing best practices and procedures, based on existing technology and regulations, to mitigate those risks. The 154-page report, Guidelines for Securing Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) Systems, is meant to assist retailers, manufacturers, hospitals, federal agencies and other organizations in understanding how to deploy RFID technology securely and safely.

Im US-Bundesstaat North Carolina konnte mit Hilfe von RFID-Technik, die das Presbyterian Hospital in der Stadt Charlotte einsetzt, eine Kindesentführung verhindert werden. Das System stammt von VeriChip, die mit dem "Hugs RFID Infant Protection System" eine Sicherheits-Lösung für Krankenhäuser anbietet.

US government spending on radio frequency identification (RFID) technology is expected to rocket 120 per cent by 2009, public sector analyst firm Input has predicted.

Although the study expects that growth within civilian agencies will start slowly, it forecasts substantial growth in 2007 as business cases emerge demonstrating similar cost benefits in areas outside the supply chain process.

A Texas legislator has filed a bill that would, in part, call for the state to replace vehicle inspection stickers with radio frequency identification (RFID) tags, otherwise known as transponders.

But the idea doesn't sit well with some privacy experts.

With Input predicting federal spending on RFID to grow 120 percent over the next five years, VARs need to understand different agency needs if they want to get in on the action, according to a panel of government IT representatives gathered on Thursday by the Bethesda chapter of the Armed Forces Communications and Electronics Association (AFCEA).

The Homeland Security Department’s proposed People Access Security Services cards, or Pass cards, are intended to serve as a low-cost alternative to passports to meet the requirements of the Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative.

Secretary Michael Chertoff has said that the initiative will be fully in effect by summer of 2008, requiring all travelers in the U.S., Canada, Mexico and the Caribbean to carry passports, Pass cards or other approved documents.

Medication and medical mistakes contribute to 98,000 patients deaths each year in the United States. The Veterans Affairs Department is leading an effort to reduce that number with a wireless application designed to ensure that patients receive the correct medications.

VA not only has outpaced private hospitals in implementing health care IT systems, but the department is leapfrogging its private-sector counterparts in using mobile and wireless devices and applications directly in patient care.

The biometric pilot program, which will run from Aug. 1 through March 2006, is designed to speed both vehicle and pedestrian traffic through the entry ports of Nogales East and Nogales West in Arizona, Alexandria Bay in New York and the Pacific Highway and Peace Arch in Washington state.