iPower: The Card That Ate Your Privacy
I got a "Technology Fact Sheet" on the National Semiconductor iPower (Tessera) card today. It's pretty grim. They have big plans for this little monster, which go way beyond just tapping the telephones of a few Mafiosi. It's too long to key in the whole thing - if you want one, call them at 1-800-272-9959. They are very helpful. Here are a few interesting excerpts:
My understanding is that NSC plans to release a Tessera version for the federal market and a DES version for the rest of us. This is probably reasonable - the federal (defense message system) Tessera market is pretty big. I don't know if they actually got the federal contract; I seem to recal hearing last week that the DoD contract for Tessera cards went to someone else, but I don't remember who. BTW, I've been playing with a prototype Tessera card for the last couple of weeks; cute little thing. Comments to follow shortly... -matt