Online and Digital Identification, Securing Web 2.0, PKI and Digital Certificates

UK police force buys smart card keyboards

Thursday, June 11, 2009

ZF Electronics Ltd - formerly Cherry Electrical Products Ltd – was awarded a contract for 8,000 of its smart card keyboard products which are being used as part of an ambitious security project being undertaken by the West Midlands Police in the UK. The company’s G83-6644LUAGB-2 smart card keyboard was an part of the tender documentation for the Gateway Program.

Smart cards are being issued to every member of staff in the organization and the smart card keyboards will be used in more than 150 different police buildings across the region. All personnel can use their smart card to logon to their computer and access applications with Single Sign-On, and in 38 sites staff will additionally use their smart card to gain access into the buildings.


ZF Electronics’ Cherry G83-6644LUAGB-2 keyboard incorporates a class-2 chip card reader. It is approved for digital signatures, PKI and Single Sign-On and supports USB 2.0 interconnection, secure PIN entry, and CT-Api.

The Cherry keyboards have been supplied via Nottingham-based Ergo Computing, which has been the principal computer hardware contractor for West Midlands Police since early 2006, supplying desktop and notebook PCs to the force. Each G83-6644LUAGB-2 works in conjunction with software from ActivIdentity. [end] 

Two Texas police departments have successfully used live fingerprint scans to serve a warrant in conjunction with a 15-year-old murder case.

The Carrollton and Lewisville, Tex. police departments used Plano-based Mentalix Inc.’s Submit live scan system to nab the suspect, Danny Elenilson Osorio. Lewisville police officers stopped Osorio in March on suspicion of driving while intoxicated. Osorio gave a fake name and birth date, and police arrested him and took him to the Lewisville jail.

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The Hong Kong Police Force (HKPF) has awarded a 10-year contract to 3M Cogent to provide high-resolution LiveScan booking systems and biometric identification products, using tenprint and palm print scans in accordance with the HKPF’s ANSI/NIST standard.

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Three University of Memphis students, using a stolen student ID card, bought snacks totaling $76.25 before they were arrested. They’ve been charged with fraudulent use of a debit card.

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Key Source International (KSI) has announced the release of a new line of computer keyboards that offer a number of security input options.

Among the various embedded options for securely authenticating one’s identity in the keyboard, called the KSI-1700, are biometrics, RFID, HID and contactless smart cards as well as technology called SonarLocID, which automatically locks a user’s workstation when they walk away.

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In the wake of information leaks to Web sites like WikiLeaks, the Department of Defense is instituting a PKI hardware-based authentication system on its classified network, the Secret Internet Protocol Router Network (SIPRNet). To that end, it’s evaluating a new smart card for use as a hardware token.

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The Massachusetts Chiefs of Police Association and the Massachusetts Major City Chiefs have selected MorphoTrust Inc. to provide its anti-counterfeiting technology to the police departments throughout the state, according to a report in Mass High Tech.

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