It sounds like something out of a science fiction novel: A business traveler inserts a card into an airport security kiosk, which matches the card's data against iris and thumbprint scans of the traveler and a scan of federal "watch list" databases; if everything is Jake, the business traveler strolls through to her gate.
To journalist and entrepreneur Steven Brill, the idea sounded like common sense — nearly four years ago. In a December 2002 Newsweek column on the need for better national security systems, Brill wrote, "One possibility — which I find so logical that, after studying the security and legal issues involved during the past year, I am tempted to try launching myself — would be a system based on some kind of credible but voluntary nationally accepted identification card. The card need not be a government program. It could be issued by private companies licensed by the federal government, which would strictly regulate the card's standards and use."
Brill — the founder of Court TV, past CEO of American Lawyer Media, and author of After: How America Confronted the September 12th Era (Simon & Schuster, 2003) — quickly surrendered to that temptation, launching Verified Identity Pass Inc. the following year.
