Digital Defense Group

IronGate Could Revolutionize Security, Company Says
Locally Made Smart Card Has Pentagon’s Attention

OMAHA, Neb. (January 30, 2007) -- The next big thing in identity protection may come from Omaha, and the nation’s leaders are watching developments closely.

Digital Defense Group makes a little black rectangular card -- about the size of a small stack of playing cards -- that the company said is the latest in biometric smart card technology. The biometric card, called IronGate, responds to a fingerprint.

“What I see this being is the de facto identity card,” said Digital Defense Group President Steve Campisi. “This is it. It could be the driver’s license. It could be all levels of identity.”

Campisi offered an example of how it works. An employee pulls up to their office building. Even from 35 feet away, Campisi said, the card activates a nearby antenna, which sends a message to the computer upstairs. Their identity goes from “away” to “active,” but only when the sensor reads their fingerprint does the active status become authenticated. That’s when the company’s garage door opens for them and allows them inside.

Campisi said no other company makes a biometric card that works from a distance.

Once inside, IronGate can tell the elevator which floor to take them to, and then unlock the door to the office.

Using IronGate, that same employee could log in to their computer without typing anything -- the biocard would deliver their secure name and password. “You no longer need to manage password changes. You no longer need to have Post-It notes all over the place trying to remember your passwords,” Campisi said.

Imagine leaving your driver’s license, passport, credit cards, and health insurance -- anything you store in a wallet -- at home in favor of carrying only the IronGate. All the information is on one card, and it is secure because it is a card no one else can access.

Campisi said the security goes one step further than just fingerprints. If someone were to tamper with the card, it erases itself.  “Everything is gone (and) this card becomes one heck of an ice scraper,” Campisi said.

Still, it may be some time before IronGate is commonplace.

Digital Defense Group spent four years taking IronGate biocard to its current level. Now, groups from local financial institutions to the Pentagon are knocking on Campisi’s door, he said.

“When we tell people where we’re from, they can’t believe that we’re not out of the Silicon Valley or some other larger metropolitan community,” Campisi said.

Digital Defense said IronGate also has applications in border patrol and military base security. On Wednesday, representatives will travel to Washington, D.C., to make what Campisi called a major IronGate presentation to a defense contractor.

As reported by: