Anna Forrester
Government agencies need to bolster the adoption of two-factor authentication for services and applications by balancing agency requirements, security and convenience for users, according to Smart Card Alliance’s Neville Pattinson.
Pattinson, the alliance’s technical chairman and founding board member of the Secure ID Coalition, wrote in a guest piece published Thursday on GCN that public awareness and necessity drive the adoption of chip-and-PIN identity proofing technology such as smart cards.
Government services such as Social Security and Medicare stand to benefit from the use of smart cards to prevent employment and healthcare fraud, identity theft and counterfeiting, as well as bolster efficiency and accuracy of service delivery, he said.
“Combining all of the different government identification documents into one smart card that could be used for programs like Medicaid benefits, food stamps and driver’s licenses could be the future,” Pattinson wrote.
“And as long as it’s done with security and privacy in mind, it’s a future I look forward to witnessing.”
