RFIDs and Employee Access: Tag, You're It

Texas Instruments moves RFID from livestock tagging to employee access control

By Kathleen Carr

December 09, 2002 — CSO — Radio frequency identification, or RFID—a data collection technology that uses electronic tags to store data—sounds like IT fiction, but at Texas Instruments, emarketing Manager Bill Allen and the RFID systems team have been using it to track livestock for years.

Texas Instruments has since migrated (pun intended) to using RFID for access control. "Corporate security managers are seeking a higher level of security, driven by the events of last September," says Allen. TI manufactures the readers and cards for access control systems using 13.56MHz technology, which allows for 2Kb of data storage. For the CSO, that translates into at-the-door programmability. CSOs can reprogram a user's access card, changing encrypted information on the fly as employees enter the door.

Corporate security managers were looking to combine radio frequency identification with biomterics, but previous RFID cards couldnt' hold enoguh data for biometric tagging. Since the cards can now hold 2Kb, biometrics is possible in addition to increased levels of encryption.

And what would securit be without convenience? These multifunction cards can act as time cards, control an employee's access to the building, serve as the currency with which they purchase lunch, and even provide access to the office parking lot, which is more than the cows ever had.

Read more about access control in CSOonline's Access Control section.

Other stories by Kathleen Carr

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