I was always led to believe that it was the evil Communists behind
the "Iron Curtain" who were obsessed with identifying & tracking
their citizens, limiting the freedom of movement etc, while the
West was free. On the other hand, the phrase "two steps forward,
one step back" comes to mind, as the Communists, while appearing
to have lost the "Cold War", implement their ID & control agenda
unhindered.

===================================================================

HP announces new National Identity System solution built on Microsoft
.NET platform
   
Solution will drive simplified, secure identification management for
governments around the world

PALO ALTO, Calif., May 27, 2005 - HP today announced the availability
of the HP National Identity System (NIS) solution on the Microsoft
.NET platform.

The HP NIS solution allows governments to build and quickly deploy at
an affordable price a complete, standards-based and technologically
agile infrastructure that meets their changing needs for security and
identity management.

Going beyond simple secure identification and authentication
functionality, the solution enables modern national identification
systems to allow citizens to access e-government services and conduct
secure transactions. The solution also provides citizens with improved
secure and intelligent identity documents.

For example, with heightened security awareness at national borders,
the solution fulfils the new requirement to ensure traveler and
citizen credentials across an entire country or region.

In addition, the modular nature of the solution enables national and
regional governments to more easily plug in additional elements, such
as biometrics, to customize and balance the level of security and
privacy as defined by a government's policy and requirements.

Recent figures from industry analyst firm Morgan Keegan show that the
worldwide identity management market is approximately $4.8 billion and
is estimated to grow to approximately $10.7 billion in 2007.(1)

"The need to securely identify people moving across national and
international borders has never been more important than it is today,"
said Jim Ganthier, worldwide leader, Defense, Intelligence and Public
Safety, HP. "HP and Microsoft are working together to provide
government agencies the ability to access the integrated data streams
needed to securely identify people both in the physical and virtual
worlds."

Built using HP's expertise in national identity systems, security
frameworks and public key infrastructures (PKI), the HP NIS can be
fully integrated into the HP e-government framework and integrated
into a nation's e-government services delivery framework. The solution
encompasses all the essential national identification system
attributes and functions, including:

    * Online and offline enrollment of demographic and biometric data
      through live capture

    * Local request as well as regional/central verification and
      registration

    * Multi-tier architecture

    * Secure management of the document lifecycle

    * Biometric and personalization subsystem integration

    * Online and offline identity verification

    * Fault tolerance and disaster recovery through design

HP and Microsoft are investing in the solution through initiatives
such as joint training programs and the establishment of specialist
centers around the world to further develop, demonstrate and sell
national identity system solutions.

The NIS leverages HP's extensive experience in delivering fully
integrated solutions, which include consulting and integration,
desktops, servers, management software and support services.
Recognizing HP's .NET commitment and unique capabilities, Microsoft
has endorsed HP as its worldwide prime integrator for Microsoft .NET
technologies.

For the HP NIS solution, Microsoft supplies a wide range of software
products and technologies, including Microsoft Server 2003 Enterprise
Edition, Microsoft BizTalk Server 2004, Microsoft SQL Server 2000 (64-
bit), the Microsoft .NET Framework and Microsoft Services.

"Microsoft recognizes that national governments and their principal
agencies have unique information technology requirements, particularly
as more governments look to implement e-government solutions," said
Jan Muehlfeit, vice president, Public Sector uEMEA, Microsoft. "Secure
and reliable identification and authentication of individuals helps
power more useful and compelling experiences for users and provides
citizens easy and secure access to services. Working with industry
partners such as HP is an important step and will provide public
sector organizations with new technology solutions to address these
key customer concerns."

HP has successfully delivered innovative NIS solutions to a wide array
of national and regional governments. The Italian Ministry of
Interior, for example, is working with HP to provide smart electronic
national identity documents for all Italian citizens. The initiative
will assist particularly in the delivery of e-government services by
supplying secure access to government services portals and enabling
transaction authentication through digital signatures.

In addition, HP is connecting citizens in Israel, Poland, Slovakia and
Bulgaria with new identity and entitlement documents such as
passports, driving licenses and identity cards to ensure security and
public safety through improved and counterfeit resistant technology.

For nearly two decades, HP and Microsoft have been working together to
define industry standards through joint development, testing and
preparation of leading PC and server solutions. During this time,
Microsoft and HP have participated in a variety of programs including
Microsoft's Joint Development Program, Rapid Development Program and
Corporate Preview Program. Microsoft also has designated HP as a
Global Launch Partner.

(snip)

Source: Hewlett Packhard
http://h30046.www3.hp.com/news_article.php?topiccode=20050526_132698_0_121_0_0
&searchid=0&showpage=&searchtopiccode=GOVEDUNEWS&pagesite=PUBS®ioncode=NA&
langcode=USENG

Cheers, Steve..

---