New hi-tech dog tags use encryption?... [CNN]

Forwarded message:

>                     PENTAGON INTRODUCING HIGH-TECH DOG TAGS
>                                        
>      electronic military dog tag December 27, 1997
>      Web posted at: 7:58 p.m. EST (0058 GMT)
>      
>      From Correspondent Jonathan Karl
>      
>      WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Through triumph and tragedy and two world wars,
>      the military dog tag has been an American icon for generations of
>      soldiers and sailors.
>      
>      Today's armed forces wear the same basic dog tag that their
>      great-grandparents wore. But that's about to change.
>      
>      By 1999, the 1.4 million members of the active duty military will be
>      issued a high-tech dog tag that contains a computer chip. CNN's
>      Jonathan Karl reports
>      icon 2 min. VXtreme video
>      
>      The old dog tags had just five lines for information, which included
>      spaces for name, religion and blood type. The new digital tags,
>      however, can contain volumes of multi-media information, including
>      medical histories, X-rays and cardiograms.

[text deleted]

>      "We have to be very concerned about how we protect the information
>      -- in who's hands would it be, should it be encrypted, could the
>      encryption be broken, what would happen if it ended up in the wrong
>      hands," says Defense Secretary William Cohen.

[text deleted]

>      If issues of cost and privacy can be solved, the old metal dog tags
>      seem certain to become just another piece of military history.


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On Sat, 27 Dec 1997, Jim Choate wrote:

> Forwarded message:
> 
> >                     PENTAGON INTRODUCING HIGH-TECH DOG TAGS

> 
> >      "We have to be very concerned about how we protect the information
> >      -- in who's hands would it be, should it be encrypted, could the
> >      encryption be broken, what would happen if it ended up in the wrong
> >      hands," says Defense Secretary William Cohen.
> 
> [text deleted]
> 
> >      If issues of cost and privacy can be solved, the old metal dog tags
> >      seem certain to become just another piece of military history.
> 

I doubt the old metal ones will go away - smartcards have an annoying 
tendancy to melt when your aircraft suffers traumatic deceleration.

Two competing cards were demo'd at JWID a few years back, so this isn't a 
new concept. One way to keep them from losing your vacination records ...

-r.w.