Skip to main content

Electronic Government: Smart Card Usage is Advancing Among Federal Agencies, Including the Department of Veterans Affairs

GAO-05-84T Published: Oct 06, 2004. Publicly Released: Oct 06, 2004.
Jump To:
Skip to Highlights

Highlights

The federal government is interested in the use of smart cards--credit card-like devices that use integrated circuit chips to store and process data--for improving the security of its many physical and information assets. Besides providing better authentication of the identities of people accessing buildings and computer systems, smart cards offer a number of other potential benefits and uses, such as creating electronic passenger lists for deploying military personnel and tracking immunization and other medical records. Over the past 2 years, GAO has studied and reported on the uses of smart cards across the federal government. Congress requested that GAO testify on federal agencies' efforts in adopting smart card technology--based on the results of this prior work--and on the specific actions that the Department of Veterans Affairs is taking to implement smart card technology.

Full Report

Media Inquiries

Sarah Kaczmarek
Managing Director
Office of Public Affairs

Public Inquiries

Topics

AuthenticationComputer securityE-governmentFacility securityIdentification cardsIdentity verificationInformation technologyPhysical securityProgram evaluationSmart cards