Results: RFID and Identity Management in everyday life - ITAS

Going to work: access and presence
The working environment is perhaps a setting where we can see some of the oldest applications of
RFID for Identity Management. In the last decade many offices have switched from the normal iron
keys or magnetic cards to RFID. Surprisingly very few studies exist of RFID use in this area. One
exception is a study from the RAND corporation on five large offices in the US. Their accounts
demonstrated that none of them used RFID merely as a key. Although the systems were put into place
by the security departments and managed as such, other departments soon took interest in the
information gathered, such as Human Resources, the legal department and line management.
[Balkovich et al, 2005: p.12] Many functions were added, such as time registration, as we will see in
our European cases too.
At the NWO office [case #96] in The Hague, the Netherlands people are still learning that the small
plastic token they hold is not just a key, although it appears to be at first sight. On entering their office,
they go through several doors which are secured with an electronic lock: from the underground car
park, to the elevators and on each floor. Readers are placed next to the door handle. The RFID tag can
be read when it is held less then a centimetre from the reader. The unique code is sent to the database,
which checks whether the token can provide access. If it does, the door opens, if it does not, the door
remains closed and the system operator receives a signal on his screen. At every reading the following
information is stored in a central database for an unlimited time: door, department, time of entry and
name of employee.
This key function is extended by the possibility of differentiating levels of access. Token holders can
be given access just on the route to their place of work from 7.30 up until 19.00 and some of the
general facilities such as the canteen. Access can be extended at the central database: allowing
personnel to also visit offices of other organisations in the building, or get access beyond the time
limits. We discovered a lively trade evolved around this extension, especially between different
organisations residing in the building. In our interviews, the system administrator appeared quit strict
about the rules: only permanent staff can get the key, with fixed level of access. However, the system
operator, who has access to the database appeared to be more flexible, demonstrating Identity
Management is not quite fixed, but negotiable.
Many people succeeded in obtaining additional tokens for temporary staff, although this is not
allowed. Also, one head of facilities convinced the system operator to bring her own access level up to
a higher grade and that of others down, providing her with access to all other offices, while she got all
other personnel from other offices rejected - even the service people who needed to access the office
for maintenance. Another employee also turned out to have extended access: this was revealed when
staff were having a celebratory drink down the hall one day and they discovered they could not enter
their offices again because it was past 19.00. To everyone’s surprise this employee’s token opened all
doors while others were locked out, even the director of the organisation.
In our time in the office, we asked several people on what they thought of the system. Almost all of
them were surprised to find out their check in time was registered and assumed the system to be
nothing more than an access system. The System Operator also told us an interesting story on one
employee who discovered that the token is more than just a key. His colleagues and supervisor saw
him leaving quite early every day, while he claimed he also started very early when others were not
there. The supervisor then went to the system operator and requested a table of check-in times of this
employee. The data were in fact showing the staff member did not always start as early as he claimed
to. The system administrator however refutes this story, reclaiming the primary function of the system:
access, not time registration. Still, a database administering the whereabouts of all staff, may prove to
be too valuable to be merely used as an access system.
13