Biometrics and mobile phones become the mechanism to consolidate what's in your pocket...

Identity and Access creeps into the key ring in your pocket

We wake up one day, and all of a sudden our key ring in our pocket barely has any of those wonderful molded and cut brass and steel “real keys”. The photo below, is my 2011 key ring, which is materially different than anything I’ve had in my pocket for the past 40 years. My car “key” is now some wireless gizmo that works in conjunction with a “start” button. The HID key fobs open the doors to my office and apartment building. The thumbdrive is so you are never left without some storage if you need it in the field. And then a few lingering keys to get into your mailbox or actual door to your home.

Keys historically provided access. Whether it be to a gate, a door or secure storage, it was the means of access. If you held the key, you had the access rights. Short of changing the lock mechanism, there was no access revocation. As long as you had the key, you had the access.

The electronic key, based on wireless communications to the lock mechanism, was a natural evolution of the physical key. It began to associate the expected holder of that key mechanism and what lock mechanisms that digital key could open. Once again, possession was imperative to gain entry. But two new wrinkles to the puzzle were introduced as we moved to the electronic key. First, a security officer could revoke or limit access with the key. A good example is a hotel key with a 1-day access limit. The second was that while the physical key provided no method of tracking its use. With the electronic key, all of a sudden the movements could be recorded and provide an audit history.

Realistically, it took a solid decade to move to this growing collection of access gizmos in your pocket to get there. With a physical infrastructure of readers in facilities, those aren’t about to change quickly.

But over the next decade or so, it seems logical that both biometrics and the mobile phones become the mechanism to consolidate what’s in your pocket. Just as we are burdened with dozens of passwords to web site accounts we frequent today, this increasing collection of electronic keys will give way to a more universal means of both identity verification and access rights.

Identity and Access: The Key Ring in Your Pocket

We wake up one day, and all of a sudden our key ring in our pocket barely has any of those wonderful molded and cut brass and steel “real keys”. The photo below, is my 2011 key ring, which is materially different than anything I’ve had in my pocket for the past 40 years. My car “key” is now some wireless gizmo that works in conjunction with a “start” button. The HID key fobs open the doors to my office and apartment building. The thumbdrive is so you are never left without some storage if you need it in the field. And then a few lingering keys to get into your mailbox or actual door to your home.
Keys historically provided access. Whether it be to a gate, a door or secure storage, it was the means of access. If you held the key, you had the access rights. Short of changing the lock mechanism, there was no access revocation. As long as you had the key, you had the access.
The electronic key, based on wireless communications to the lock mechanism, was a natural evolution of the physical key. It began to associate the expected holder of that key mechanism and what lock mechanisms that digital key could open. Once again, possession was imperative to gain entry. But two new wrinkles to the puzzle were introduced as we moved to the electronic key. First, a security officer could revoke or limit access with the key. A good example is a hotel key with a 1-day access limit. The second was that while the physical key provided no method of tracking its use. With the electronic key, all of a sudden the movements could be recorded and provide an audit history.
Realistically, it took a solid decade to move to this growing collection of access gizmos in your pocket to get there. With a physical infrastructure of readers in facilities, those aren’t about to change quickly.
But over the next decade or so, it seems logical that both biometrics and the mobile phones become the mechanism to consolidate what’s in your pocket. Just as we are burdened with dozens of passwords to web site accounts we frequent today, this increasing collection of electronic keys will give way to a more universal means of both identity verification and access rights.