The draft policy framework, Smart Cards: Enabling e-Government, is up for a three-month consultation period. The document claims that, "widespread adoption of smart cards may hold the key to a significant increase in e-government over the next few years.
"Since they have the ability to hold a digital credential in a portable form, smart cards provide a solution to the problem of authentication and security on the Internet.
"In the same way, they may be used to overcome the problem of authentication between government and the citizen."
But the document also identifies four key hurdles to the adoption of a smart card scheme: "the lack of an industry-wide set of standards, the absence of a proven business case for a multi-application smart card scheme, the need to safeguard citizens' rights in respect of the data held about them, and finally, the requirement to demonstrate someone is who they say they are online."
The proposals can be read at www.govtalk.gov.uk.
Quelle: Internet Magazine
