Smartcards: world access, Joe Paone. Mobile users dream of universal access to their networked desktops. Being able to log on to your own system fi-om a PC in a remote site and see your familiar interface, applications, and data could be a productivity enhancer as well as a convenience. For network managers, on the other hand, ubiquitous access without guaranteed security would be a nightmare. The digital certificate on a smartcard contains relevant information about the user that is necessary for proper authentication and authorization. The card can be used to provide encryption, Because the smartcard is physically separate from any PC, accessing a computer through a smartcard reader device, secure access becomes portable. Users can log on anywhere from any machine and gain access to the information and services for which they are authorized. Many companies' Internet commerce plans have a lot riding on the success of smartcards. For most network managers not in charge of commerce servers, the smartcard could enable remote, mobile and even in-house employees to authenticate themselves and encrypt data sent to or over the network with a swipe card. However, some industry experts feel that the widespread roll-out of smartcards and digital certificates in enterprise networks is probably a minimum of two years away.