'Long way to go' on smart cards

Navy Department officials concede they will be hard-pressed to distribute 800,000 Common Access Cards by Sept. 30, 2002. Indeed, at the current rate of more than 1,000 cards issued each business day, they'll be lucky to be halfway toward the Pentagon's goal by then.

"Ten thousand down, 790,000 to go," said Dan Porter, the Navy Department's chief information officer. He was speaking last month at an Armed Forces Communications and Electronics Association luncheon after the department had issued its 10,000th Common Access Card, the Pentagon's name for its smart card. "We've got a long way to go."

The cards are being issued to active-duty service members and civilian defense employees, as well as some reservists and contractors. Beyond controlling access to buildings, computer networks and Web servers, the cards will hold basic identification data on a microchip.

The Defense Manpower Data Center has made card distribution easier by reducing the time it takes to create a card, said Dave Wennergren, the Navy Department's deputy chief information officer for e-business and security.

He also said many installations' Web sites tell employees when they should arrive at the base security office to have their cards created.

Wennergren, who is also chairman of the Smart Card Senior Coordinating Group, downplayed the difficulties that might arise when a Marine or sailor loses a card and needs to be issued a new one. "We have procedures" through the Navy's public-key infrastructure program for replacing lost cards, he said.