Prox Cards for Personal Use

I was looking through the security web sites that I read this morning and saw an interesting article in Information Week from February 8, 2009. In the article "Startup May Just Digitize you Wallet", George Hulm discusses using newly developed technology by Proxense a Bend Or. company.

I have thought about this type of technology for years, and from the gist of the article it seems that others have as well. I for one, am so tired of carrying a wallet full of store reward cards to get the best price on a product at one of my favorite retailers. I do not know who came up with this system but, I can think of a few things I would like to do to the inventor of this idea!

I think they are responsible for all the back problems I now suffer from carrying them around in my back pocket and causing me to sit leaning to my left side. And when I travel, I try to cull out the ones I don't use to lighten my load, and inevitable I need one I don't have. Not a very good system.

The questions that come to my mind though, are how will the information be secured? Can the data be intercepted? What about the data store, how will it be secured? Is the system maintained by you or a third party or the retailer? If we could control what gets added and removed by updating a form on a secure web-page I think I might really look forward to this type of technology.

In addition to the obvious benefits, George speaks about the countless other applications as well as using it to store vital health information. Now we are getting somewhere.

The idea of this technology and innovation gets me excited because it places that technology in the hands of everyone. There are countless technological advancements created everyday; however, most people never realize it because it is behind the scenes. That is what was so much fun about working in IT in the '80's. Every day you would see a new product that would change the way you do things: mice, printers, graphical interfaces, mass storage devices, the internet.........

I know that this is a very rough time for everyone. But maybe it is what our country needed to stimulate innovative thinking and motivate people to implement those great ideas that they have been holding in for so long.

Oh, and remember what Oscar Wilde said,"Only dull people are brilliant at breakfast".


Jack