Smart card and interconnectivity | 08.26.2005 | 10:34:20 | Views: 4312 | ID: August 26 '05: The Department of Homeland Security will release a new first responder identification system in the Washington DC area, also known as the National Capital Region (NCR). The new system will part of a "credentialing effort. ... designed as a model for other regions to enhance cooperation and efficiency between state and local first responders and their federal counterparts." Under the new system, those rushing to the scene of a disaster will wear a "smart card" that will carry all pertinent information about that person including their area of expertise, their security clearance and under what part of the government (state or local) they are working. According to a department release, the architecture of the card, "will identify first responders and their qualification(s) at the site of an incident, so they may move rapidly into, out of, and within an area in a trusted and secure manner." The card system will also be able to detected and recognized "across all NCR federal, state, and local multi-jurisdictions" to allow greatly mobility to respond to attacks. Other similar networks are being designed and implemented across the country. In New York, a wireless network is being built which would give police and firefighters the ability to connect and communicate through the internet during an emergency. Broadband Wireless Exchange Magazine reported that PacketHop, a technology company based in California which specializes in "autonomous mobile mesh networks" that allow users to connect to a network from any place in a given area, has bee building "the industry's first solution designed to instantly interconnect police, firs and other public safety department's communications at the scene of an emergency." According to PacketHop, "Wireless network connectivity for every possible user situation," will be provided so that users "can communicate peer-to-peer with a virtually unlimited number of other users whenever the network is present."
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