SECURITY CLEARANCE CARD, SYSTEM AND METHOD OF READING A SECURITY CLEARANCE CARD

• US 20060213986A1
• Filed: 10/16/2002
• Published: 09/28/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 12/31/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Digital Data Research Company
• Original Assignee: Digital Data Research Company
• Inventors: Register, Arthur F. Jr., Camper, Frank J.
• Granted Patent: US 7,137,553 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 235/382.500
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 19/04 characterised by the shape
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 19/044 comprising galvanic contacts for contacting an integrated circuit chip thereon
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 19/06046 Constructional details
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 19/0719 at least one of the integrated circuit chips comprising an arrangement for application selection, e.g. an acceleration sensor or a set of radio buttons application selection on smart cards using pure software control, see G07F7/10
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 9/257 electronically G07C9/26 takes precedence

Abstract

The security clearance card, system and method of the present invention includes a card that stores data to verify the identity of an owner of the card. In addition to other types of information, the card stores biometric data of the owner and other identity data. Different portions of the data may be encrypted with different encryption techniques based upon a predetermined level of security assigned to the portions of the stored data. Reader elements are then capable of reading at least a portion of the encrypted data stored on the security clearance card, and receiving at least one biometric from an individual. The biometric stored in the card is then compared with the biometric of the individual presenting the security clearance card to verify that the holder of the card is the owner of the card.

Claims

1-28. -28. (canceled)

29. A security system comprising:

a security clearance cards having at least two data portions stored thereon, wherein each data portion is encrypted differently using a different encryption key;

at least one card reader element capable of reading the data portions from said security clearance card;

at least one computing system in communication with said card reader, said computing system having an associated security level indicating what data portions the computing system is authorized to access said computing system having at least one associated security key for decoding data portions from said security clearance card,

wherein when said reader reads the data portions from said security clearance card, said computing system attempts to decode the at least two data portions using the security key, wherein data portions that were encrypted with the security key associated with computing system are decoded and read by the computing system, while data portions encrypted using another security key not accessible by the computing system are not decoded by said computing system thereby restricting access by said computing system to some data portions read from said security clearance card.

30. A security system according to claim 29, wherein when said security clearance card is provided to said card reader element, said card reader element reads all data portions stored on said card, but only decodes data portions that were encrypted with the security key.

31. A security system according to claim 30, wherein said computing system receives all data portions read by said card reading element from said security clearance card and decodes those data portions having an associated security level specified for access by the security clearance value associated with said computing system.

32. A security system comprising:

at least one security clearance card having at least first and second data portions stored thereon, wherein the first data portion is encrypted using a first encryption key and the second data portion is encrypted using a second encryption key;

at least one card reader element capable of reading data from said security clearance card; and

at least first and second computing systems in communication with said card reader, wherein each of said computing systems has associated therewith a security clearance value dictating what data portions the computing system is authorized to access, said first computing system having at least said first security key and said second computing system having said at least second security key,

wherein when said reader reads the data portions from said security clearance card, said computing systems attempt to decode the first and second data portions using their associated security keys, wherein said first computing system decodes the first data portion and said second computing system decodes the second data portion.

33. A security system according to claim 32, wherein said card reading element has an associated security clearance value, and wherein said card reading element is capable of reading all data portions stored on said security clearance card and is capable of decoding the data portions corresponding the security clearance value associated with said card reading element.

34. A security system according to claim 32,

wherein said security clearance card has at least first and second data portions respectively having a first and second security level values associated therewith, wherein said card reader element has a security clearance value dictating that said card reader element may decode data having a first security level and at least one of said computing systems has a security clearance value indicating that said computing system may decode both data having a first security level and data having a second security level,

wherein when said card reader element reads data from said security clearance card, said card reader element reads both first and second data portions, and decodes the data portion having the first level of security, and

wherein said computing system receives both first and second data portions from said card reader element and decodes both data portions.

35. A security system according to claim 32, wherein the security clearance value associated with at least one of said computing systems may be altered to thereby change what security level of data that said computing system may decode from said card.

36. A security system according to claim 32 further comprising a plurality of operators capable of operating said computer systems, wherein each of said operators has associated therewith a security clearance value dictating what security level of data that said operators may access.

37. A security system according to claim 32 further comprising a plurality of secure locations and a card reader element associated with each of said secure locations, wherein each of said secure locations has a security level value associated therewith.

38. A security system according to claim 37, wherein said secure locations is one of a facility, a location of an item, and a location of a data file.

39. A security system according to claim 37, wherein each security clearance card has an associated security clearance value dictating what security level of secure locations that the owner of said security clearance card may access, such that said owner may only access selected secure locations.

40. A system according to claim 39, wherein the security clearance value associated with a security clearance card can be altered to change the specific secure locations accessibly by the owner of said security clearance card.

41. (canceled)

42. (canceled)