Secure Network Systems, LLC And HID Global Announce Successful Summer Breeze Demonstration

Secure Network Systems, LLC (SNS), an emerging leader in the converged IT/network and physical security market, and HID Global, the trusted leader in providing solutions for the delivery of secure identity, recently announced that the SNS NIMS-IMPACT® Logical and Physical Access Control System enabled by HID technology, played a key role in the successful Summer Breeze demonstration.  

Summer Breeze was the latest in a series of DOD and DHS demonstrations for first responders to display interoperability and identity validation, a multi-location demonstration illustrating the role that US NIST Personal Identity Verification (PIV)-compliant smart card credentials play in a crisis.  The Department of Homeland Security Office of National Capital Region Coordination (DHS ONCRC) and Department of Defense Pentagon Force Protection Agency (DoD PFPA)-sponsored demonstration took place on July 19, 2007.

During the nationwide demonstration, handheld devices read traditional credentials from a variety of vendors, transmitting information on location, Emergency Support Function (ESF) and sector attributes in near real-time for situational awareness visualization.  The Colorado North Central Region participated in the demonstration, illustrating that interoperability encompasses a broad suite of FIPS 201 compliant technologies, including Logical and Physical Access Control Systems (LACS/PACS) and contactless smart cards.  At the Colorado State Patrol site, credentials were also read and validated using SNS's revolutionary mobile Emergency Management LACS/PACS system utilizing HID Global components.

"While there were technical failures of handheld card readers being used at the demonstration to read the contact chip information stored on the ID cards, the contactless readers worked as expected on the SNS contactless cards and were even able to read the contactless portion of cards provided by other vendors.  The system was also able to read barcode information on non-smart card IDs from the State Health Department.  The focus of this demonstration was to test the ability of several different vendor products to see if they could read different card formats. By the end of the day, this goal was successfully achieved by the Colorado North Central Region using the NIMS-IMPACT mobile product family" said Captain Craig Meyer, Regional Credentialing Coordinator.  "Plus having a mobile system means a perimeter can be quickly relocated if a plume or wildfire takes an unexpected turn."

"HID Global is pleased that our long-standing development partnership with Secure Network Systems contributes to the safety and security of our nation's first responders," said Eric Widlitz, vice president of OEM and Government Channels, HID Global.  "With HID's leadership in protecting physical facilities worldwide, extending the paradigm of LACS/PACS into the challenging disaster response and incident management realm is not only a worthwhile endeavour it is also extremely cost-effective."