Abstract: A user access control system comprising a workstation coupled to a computer network and operable to receive a request for an authenticated access to the computer network, and to prompt for and receive one or more credentials associated with the request, a gating authentication server coupled to the computer network and operable to receive the one or more credentials and to provide as a gating factor an authenticated credential, and a public key infrastructure server coupled to the computer network and operable to generate private/public key pairs associated with the authenticated credential, wherein the private/public key pairs are either generated after a request for access to the computer system has been received at the workstation and the gating authentication server has authenticated the one or more credentials provided through the workstation, or the private/public key pairs are retrieved from a previously generated virtual smart card based on the authentication credential.