VA Hospitals across the country are rolling out a high tech employee ID badge program that aims to reduce identity fraud while protecting personal information. The VA Hospital in Big Springs, Texas is the latest to hop on board. Each card features an encrypted chip that holds important info such as fingerprints and government employee verification. The cards also certify that the employee has received a full background investigation.

In an effort to crack down on identity theft, the Department of Veteran’s Affairs created a new identity card for veterans to prevent scams and protect confidential information. The new ID program will safeguard benefits and services that all veterans are entitled to after their military service.

Oklahoma's Cleveland County Courthouse is launching a new photo ID program in response to several recent security breaches involving people bringing in weapons or potentially dangerous objects. The new ID system aims to make it easier for deputies to screen courthouse visitors and search all bags being brought into the building. To do this, the east door of the courthouse will now be open only to courthouse employees and attorneys carrying an ID card issued by the Sheriff's Department.

With several different sites to watch over security was a challenge for the Bolton Metropolitan Council. In addition to a large town hall which hosts most of the council’s business and boasts the town’s central registry office, a theater, and other public rooms, the Council also operates several over satellite buildings around the area. To keep better track of the more than 4,500 people coming through the doors the council installed an access control system using proximity cards that ensures building users are only permitted to enter pre-approved areas at designated times.

A new employee badge system will soon be in place for the emergency responders of Steamboat Springs, Colorado. This new ID system will standardize badges issued to law enforcement, firefighters, paramedics, and non-government agencies that are potential responders in emergencies. The new ID program is being put in place to help organize and manage the chaos that often happens at emergency scenes, by creating greater accountability for the emergency responders on the scene.

A new smart card system at The Memorial Hospital in North Conway, New Hampshire was just installed to assist with access and tracking of patients and their medical records. Smart cards aid the process of admission, identifying the patients and also giving patients access to their own medical records, where they can add to their own records. The cards carry information about individual patient demographics, insurance, and medical history. The pre-storage of the information on the smart cards allows for immediate admission into the hospital, speeding along the process.

The Transportation Worker Identification Credential card (or TWIC) is something we've mentioned a few times in the past. This is the new, high-tech identification card that's slowly being phased into a number of U.S. ports. But this week, ports in New England will be the first to officially require all workers to carry the cards, which act as another layer of protection for areas considered to be vulnerable to terrorism.

The Army is testing out a pilot program that allows contract workers to use an ID card to gain access to Department of Defense (DOD) services and facilities. The DOD-approved card program, referred to as the Synchronized Pre-Deployment and Operational Tracker program (or SPOT for short), is designed to verify the identities of nongovernment personnel and give visibility to contractors in the battlefield.

At the U.S. border entry point in Nogales, Arizona, RFID readers are being installed to read new travel documents that will be required for entry. One of those documents is the recently produced U.S. Passport Card, which features an RFID tag. The tag can be read wirelessly by the RFID readers at distances of up to 30 feet. To protect privacy, each passport card will contain a reference number that must first be matched against the Homeland Security Department's secure database before the cardholder's personal information can be obtained.

Medicaid customers in the state of Kansas will soon receive permanent medical ID cards in place of the paper IDs that were previously issued each month. The new medical ID cards will be durable, made of PVC plastic like your typical credit card, and won't have to replaced.

HID Global has announced that its Fargo HDP5000-LC ID card printer/encoder is now formally certified as FIPS 201 compliant by the U.S. General Services Administration (GSA). This certification means that organizations and government agencies can use the HDP5000-LC printer to meet the government-wide standard for ID cards for all federal employees and contractors. This standard was mandated by the Homeland Security Presidential Directive 12.

Currently, Chinese Customs staff members and officers have paper identification badges. Paper IDs work for some - but for officers who are constantly on the go, keeping China's booming ports safe - they can be a bit of a letdown (to say the least). That's why about 4,400 new smart ID cars were issued to Customs and Excise Department officers this Tuesday.

The use of biometric technology isn't new or novel to many of us - we will provide our fingerprints for access control and identification at least once in our lives. Not all biometrics are as ubiquitous as the fingerprint, however. Another form of biometrics, facial recognition software, used by DMVs in the state of Illinois, has helped the state drastically cut down on one of its most infamous problems - drivers license fraud.

Students and summer youth employees in Washington D.C. will soon receive new SmartTrip One Cards good for travel throughout the entire Metro transit system. Initially, the One Card program was designed to provide District residents with access to certain facilities such as parks and recreation centers, and libraries. Now, with the cards doubling as SmarTrip cards, students will be able to use a single ID to ride the Metro and access their schools and workplaces.

The Department of Defense is making improvements to its ID card program in order to meet the requirements of Homeland Security Presidential Directive 12. HSPD-12 calls for new personal identification verification (PIV) cards to be issued to all military and civilian employees working for the DoD. The enhanced PIV cards will use contactless card technology to provide physical and logical access to facilities as well as computer systems.

Jefferson County employees in Beaumont, TX, are getting used to carrying their new employee ID cards. The cards, the first phase of a new county security plan passed last August, have a data chip (like the HID iClass) inside the card that stores personal data like name, date of hire, and departmental information.

The United Arab Emirates is the newest country in a long line of nations to establish a national ID card program. National ID cards help identify citizens and also may guarantee services like healthcare, or serve as a driver's license. The difference with the new UAE national ID card? ATM functionality.

Individuals who work or visit government buildings in La Salle County, Ill. might be required to wear identification badges in the not-so-distant future. The county’s Courthouse and Jail Committee has been asked to explore the idea of enhancing security for county facilities, most notably the courthouse, and the Governmental and Criminal Justice complex. There is concern that it’s too easy for unauthorized individuals to slip past security and access the buildings. An ID card program would help to ensure that access is only granted to the appropriate employees and visitors.

Public offices in Los Angeles aren't concentrated - like the city, municipal office buildings and employees are scattered throughout the Los Angeles Basin. From its three city halls to the utility companies, employees had long used independent security systems - with each building being responsible for producing its own entry and access control cards.

Increasing worries over homeland security and protection have spawned many debates about preventative measures. The upcoming presidential election and current events have made us familiar with some of the most popular ones - airline security measures like liquids bans and a fence along the US-Mexico border, for instance. But, Indiana representative Mark Souder says that one of the most important security measures the United States can have is the ability to track and record biometric information - not just for visitors into the country, but for normal ID cards like drivers licenses, and that security of our ID cards is intrinsically linked to the security of the country.

India's ESI (Employee State Insurance) Corporation has announced that it will soon be issuing smart cards to provide employees with health and medical benefits, among others, to employees who fall under the care of ESI. Currently, the ESI oversees the care of about 9 million employees and 30 million beneficiaries all across India.

Saudi Arabia is the newest country to roll out a national ID program - and has chosen Entrust, Inc. to provide the infrastructure and technologies needed to get the new program going. The new ID cards will be issued to all Saudi nationals, and will feature state-of-the art encryption and security measures to keep sensitive personal data safe.

If you've ever been to a government building, you know the drill. A security guard inspects your ID card, your belongings take a spin through the x-ray machine, and you stroll through the metal detector, hoping that that filling won't act up again. However, worries about fake IDs, forgery and attacks have caused concerns among some.

With over 1 billion citizens, India is the second most populous country in the world, second to china. Over 1 bilion people live and work in this giant democracy every day, and with such a large population comes a proportionally large government and education infrastructure. Officials have recently implemented a plan to ensure that Indian medical post-graduates from indistinguishable government departments do not mistakenly get teaching jobs, and they're going to use RFID cards to help make the plan come to life.

What's one of the most important things in disaster recovery? The natural response is to say to help - as much as possible and wherever needed. However, first responders - groups like fire fighters, police officers, medical personnel and the national guard, have recently struggled with responder tracking during major disasters like Hurricane Katrina and 9/11. Government officials struggle to locate, organize and effectively battle the crisis to which they are responding. First responders, who may quickly move from place to place and agency to agency in order to maximize efficiency and help, need to work and communicate quickly and focus as much as possible on the task at hand instead of the infrastructure of support.

India is known for lots of things - the birthplace of many major religions, the Taj Mahal, delicious food, V.S. Naipaul, and the Indus Valley civilization. India has also long been revered for its spices, including cardamom, the unique ginger relative used in everything from digestive aids to Chai tea. There are over 40,000 cardamom growers in India today, and their regulatory group, the Spices Board, has introduced a new ID card program which is aiming to increase exports of the spice.

Authorities in Guangdong Province, China (one of the country's wealthiest areas) have introduced a plan which aims to boost security, prevent crime, and make cities and villages in Guangdong safer for everyone. RFID cards, to be issued to all residents, are a key element of this plan. Citizens would be required to carry one of these ID cards on them at all times, and information from the cards will be used to bolster a government program called the "public security information network." The RFID cards, which will hold information like bus records and credit card purchases, will likely transmit the information stored on the card to checkpoints at certain intervals. RFID cards, or contactless smart cards, have the ability to transmit information to a reader or interceptor through radio waves.

Ah, the idyllic days of summer, where the days consist of mischief, little league games, playing with friends, and swimming at the town pool. Perfect, right? Maybe for kids - but parents can quickly get worried when they don't know where little Johnny or Suzie ran off to. The Shanklin Municipal Pool in Goshen, Indiana has instituted an ID card program which city officials hope will help prevent this.

In response to a rash of robberies in nearby Marion, officials in Sherborn, MA have instituted a policy that requires all 55 city employees to wear ID badges.

After publicly joining the governors of several other states in a clear disapproval of the REAL ID act of 2005, Washington governor Christine Gregoire has voiced support for a new state ID program that would replace the state's requirements for the REAL ID card.

69% of Irish 16 and 17-year olds have admitted to underage drinking, and in a response, the Irish government is issuing a voluntary tamper-proof ID card, with plans to eventually make it compulsory.

In 2004, when the Homeland Security Presidential Directive 12 (HSPD-12) was issued, a shot was fired that started the race to create the next generation of government ID cards. The directive requires that all federal employees and contractors carry a secure ID that works across all government agencies, and functions for the purpose of both access control as well as logistical applications such as logging onto computers. It’s estimated that HDPD-12-compliant forms of ID will eventually be carried by upwards of 4 million federal employees and tens of millions of contractors.

We're all accustomed to the DMV - waiting in line, filling out endless forms, the people in line who can't seem to read the signs and obey the rules, the curt  employees...and the really, really, really bad photos that always seem to end up on our state-issued IDs. It seems that they're an inevitable part of life - birth, death, taxes and the crummy license photo.

Years of warlords, civil strife and drug trafficking in Colombia have brought thousands of refugees into neighboring Venezuela - over 200,000 in the past eight years. While only 20 of these are recognized as legitimate refugees, Venezuela has recently instituted an ID card program to protect those who have requested asylum.

UK Prime Minister Tony Blair has made another push for the implementation of a national ID card system, saying that ID cards and biometric identification technology are one of the most important steps a country can take in preventing terrorism and terrorist attacks.

The United States' involvement in Iraq is one of the most hotly debated domestic issues today. With such divisive opinions and harsh reactions to policies and troop movements, even the most inane details are highly debated topics. One current issue is President George W. Bush's initiative to send over 20,000 new troops to Iraq in a "surge" that defense experts say could help amend current problems. Predictably, the issue is split down party lines, with most Republicans supporting the surge and most Democrats opposing it. Democratic congressmen have gone so far as to draft a non-binding resolution opposing President Bush's proposed troop increase. The House of Representatives is debating the issue this week in what is predicted to be one of the most heated and emotional debates to take place in the Capitol.

The British Army, one of Alpha Card's customers, recently forwarded on a couple of pictures from their current work in Helmand Province, Afghanistan. Officers are using an ID card printer to make secure badges for the new Afghani police force.