Patent ID: 8149086

Claim:
A method for identifying, at the moment of verification of identity for permission to enter a protected ground, airspace and/or sea limit, the situation of a threat to the protected ground, airspace and/or sea limits by an approaching ground vehicle, aircraft or sea-going vessel, the method using a smart card having a clock that is time-synchronized with a clock in a control center, said method comprising: having an authorized driver/pilot/captain select between first and second different secret PIN codes that are encoded in a smart card and uniquely identify the authorized driver/pilot/captain, said first PIN code representing a first state in which the vehicle, aircraft or sea-going vessel is not considered to present a threat and said second PIN code representing a second state in which the vehicle, aircraft or sea-going vessel is considered to present a threat; entering the selected one of the first or second PIN codes into the smart card; encrypting the selected one of the first and second PIN codes in said smart card using the smart card clock to generate a time-based one-time-only code that is uniquely indicative of the selected PIN code at a specified instant of time; conveying the one-time-only code to the control center; and decoding the time-based one-time-only code at the control center using the control center clock to determine which of the first or second PIN codes was entered; whereby, upon said control center receiving the time-based one-time-only code, the control center obtains positive identification of the driver/pilot/captain and the degree of the threat that said vehicle, aircraft or seagoing vessel presents.