Endtime Magazine Jan-Feb 2013 | Page 27

card is intended to eventually replace all local, regional, and national forms of ID, providing a central database through which Russians can access everything from medical insurance to ATMs. According to the official website, the UEC will be adopted by around 1,000 national and regional services along with about 10,000 commercial enterprises. The mayor of Moscow has already declared it will be able to handle public transportation there, and we can expect similar adoptions throughout the nation. The cards were scheduled for rollout beginning in January of 2012. However, this has been delayed because the cards are not yet available and the system is not working properly. The revised distribution plan is to give cards to all who apply for them in 2013. The following year, cards will be issued to all citizens, unless a person makes a written statement of refusal. MANY NATIONS TOOK SIGNIFICANT STEPS TOWARD ESTABLISHING THEIR NATIONAL ID SYSTEMS IN 2012. PAKISTAN Pakistan’s National Database Regulatory Authority launched the country’s new Smart National Identity Card in October of 2012. It held the launch at the eighth symposium of International Civil Aviation Organization on identity documents, biometrics and security standards. The Smart National Identity Card contains 36 security features. The Pakistani government has invested Rs 200 billion in developing smart card IDs with biometric verification for use in humanitarian assistance and financial inclusion programs. It also plans to roll out e-Government services such as insurance, pension disbursement and e-voting, with the cards. TECHNOLOGY PREPARES FOR THE MARK OF THE BEAST Hitachi Electric announced a new camera technology that can scan days of camera footage instantly, finding any face that has ever passed the camera’s lens. Hitachi claims the new technology can scan 36 million faces per second! UNITED STATES In the US, the battle against a national ID card, deceptively called Real ID, has been fierce. The deadline for implementation has been changed from May 11, 2008 to December 31, 2009 to May 11, 2011 to January 15, 2013. With the January 15, 2013 deadline fast approaching, Homeland Security has been ominously quiet on the issue. With many states still in non-compliance, it appears this deadline won’t be met either. However, after seven years of continual pressure, some of the states seem to be coming around. Even those states that have laws on their books forbidding compliance with Real ID are, in fact, moving to comply. The National Conference of State Legislatures says it’s not trying to get repeal legislation reintroduced into the US Congress and instead is focusing its efforts on changing the Homeland Security Department’s implementing ɕ