“It was recognized that if a universal PIN were used for multiple applications both within a faculty and university-wide, that users would be more likely to remember them and keep them secure,” he said.

There are no security concerns about using the PIN in more situations, since the authentication is done entirely by a central computer, and the individual applications do not ever access PINs, Wamback said.

Use of the PIN has expanded since it was first developed.

Although the first application developed for the PIN system was used by students, other faculties have since begun taking advantage of the system to allow employees to access information.

The Law School has moved to the PIN to allow online registrations and the School of Public Health will begin using the University PIN in the fall. The University also began to allow students to deactivate and reactivate an I.D. online with the PIN, so that students can do so even when the I.D. office is closed.

In the near future a new version of the software will allow students to use alpha-numeric PINs, according to Wamback.

He says that the registrars’ offices of the various faculties are among those working to develop more online services for students and employees, hoping to simplify cross-registration, course lotteries and ordering transcripts online.

“There are many opportunities for the University to streamline its processes, and many will require authentication,” Wamback wrote in an e-mail.

—Staff writer Garrett M. Graff can be reached at ggraff@fas.harvard.edu.