Defence gives its security pass card a fail

13.05.2011
Defence is to overhaul the electronic access card system which controls staff access to facilities in the Canberra region amid decreasing overall performance of the security system.

According to Defence documents, the agency introduced an electronic access control system (EACS) to the Defence Canberra Region in 2005 to support positive identification and physically control access to designated restricted areas within the Defence estate in the ACT.

The Defence Canberra Region EACS Network, also referred to as the Defence ACT Common EACS Network, operates across a number of locations throughout the ACT.

The system is based on Cardax's FT Command Centre v4.2 access control product and works in conjunction with a Defence Common Access Card system, which combines visual photo recognition and physical access control.

"Defence's Cardax v4.2 system, and associated ICT infrastructure, is characterised by a decreasing mean time between failure and decreasing overall System performance," the documents read.

In order to counter this decreasing overall system performance, a technology refresh of the current system will replace end-of-life server hardware and upgrade its CardaxFT Command Centre software to version 6.0.