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Dear members and friends of the Alliance, So, raise your hand if you are ready for Spring! I don't know how people in the South or on the West Coast feel, but those of us in the Northeast have endured the coldest winter in about 100 years and we are ready for the big thaw that is hopefully around the corner.
Speaking of thawing, it is nice to hear the recent good news from the smart card industry. The major card vendors are reporting that shipments and profits are up significantly from last year. There have been some major government contract awards recently with many more in the pipeline. And optimism is high for contactless payments in retail and transit. All of this gives us reason to be optimistic that 2004 will see continued expansion in smart card adoption across all vertical market segments, including financial.
Right now, most of my attention is focused on the Federal government and preparations for our upcoming "Smart Cards in Government" conference, March 8-10 at the Hilton - Crystal City. We are pleased to announce that Steve Cooper has accepted our invitation to be the keynote speaker at our conference. Mr. Cooper was appointed by President George W. Bush in February 2003 as the first CIO of the Department of Homeland Security. Mr. Cooper is responsible for the information technology assets supporting 190,000 federal employees in the 22 agencies that now make up the department. The 2-day conference is book-ended by the Federal Smart Card Project Managers Group meeting that starts things off on Tuesday morning and 10 information-packed panel sessions on leading technology issues and business and policy concerns that conclude late Wednesday afternoon. An anticipated sold-out exhibit floor will compliment the program content and provide hands-on demonstrations of smart card technologies for physical and logical security applications. There is still time to register. Go to www.smartcardalliance.org for more details.
The timing of this March conference couldn't be better for highlighting significant policy announcements and new resources available to the government and commercial smart card industry. First, the Federal Identity and Credentialing Committee (FICC) announced last week the release of a document, Authentication & Identity Policy Framework for Federal Agencies. This document–the roadmap that the government intends to follow–includes language recommending cryptographic smart cards for government-wide physical credentials and possibly electronic credentials for all issuing agencies.
Next, the GSA, who along with OMB received criticism for not updating its resources in last year's GAO report on government smart card programs, will release a new Government Smart Card Handbook next month. Completely re-written based on input from more than 60 government and industry experts, this handbook contains thorough descriptions of smart card technology, implementation guidelines and key decision points, task order writing instructions, and recommendations for government project managers. A team of Smart Card Alliance Leadership Council members participated in the review of the handbook and contributed to its content. BearingPoint, an Alliance member organization, served as the prime contractor. A panel discussion on the Government Smart Card Handbook, including how the project was managed and how it will be used by GSA for government-wide smart card programs, will be part of the March "Smart Cards in Government" conference program.
Lastly, the Alliance's Secure Personal ID Task Force is completing its latest report, Secure Identification Systems: Building a Chain of Trust, with release scheduled in early March. This white paper introduces the challenges faced by ID systems and discusses the elements that are key to implementing a secure ID system. This non-technical report is targeted to the general public, decision makers, and staff who are facing decisions on how to implement new secure credentialing systems. It demonstrates how smart cards are a vital and critical link in the chain of trust for identification systems. The report will be free to Alliance members and government employees. Others will be able to download the report from the Smart Card Alliance Web store.
To conclude this month's newsletter, I want to mention the Online Member Survey that was distributed this week to more than 600 member organization contacts. This is the first wide-reaching member survey we've done since I became Executive Director more than 2 years ago. I value your input and want to know how you feel about a range of topics from our conferences, the web site, our internal communications, our external industry outreach, and the value individual members place on current and proposed services we offer. I encourage everyone who received the web link to take 10 minutes or so and complete the survey. Your responses must be received by Friday, February 27th. If you did not receive the survey and would like to, send me a note and I will get it to you. Everyone who completes the survey will be entered into a drawing for a 3 megapixel digital camera. My special thanks go out to Julie Krueger (JCB), Colleen Kulhanek (Datakey), and Cathy Medich who worked so hard on developing the survey.
Randy
Vanderhoof
Executive Director
Smart Card Alliance
rvanderhoof@smartcardalliance.org
Each week the
latest news, press releases, and articles are made available
at your Alliance web site. To include your company's articles,
news, and releases in this great industry resource, send electronic
submissions to news@smartcardalliance.org.
Click on the headline to read the full text of these articles–currently
"showing" at the Alliance site.
Each month,
the international smart card associations who are members
of the ISCAN network share smart card industry news with the
Smart Card Alliance. Below are some of the highlights from
recent ISCAN member newsletters.
EUROSMART RELEASES TWO NEW POSITION PAPERS
EUROSMART has published a position paper to welcome the creation of the European Information Network Security Agency and called for an increased cooperation of member states to guarantee security and interoperability in the respect of data protection. Click here to download the position paper. A second paper focuses on the creation of the Platform for Mobile Communications and Technologies and urges the Commission to support industrial cooperation between and cross sectors in order to guarantee European competitiveness. Click here to download the position paper.
................ Source: Eurosmart.com, February 2004 NEW REPORT EXAMINES CHINA'S GSM MARKET
Smart Card Forum of China has released a special report on The Status of China's Mobile Phone Industry and Regional Markets. This report cites that in 2004 China and neighboring countries will have over 370 million GSM subscribers, accounting for 41% of the global marketplace. Current shipments are mostly 32K SIM cards with a shift to 64K and 128K SIM modules over the next two years. China is the largest market for mobile phone subscribers with 240 million in 2003.
................ Source: Smart Card Forum of China News, February 2004
MASTERCARD COMBINES SMART CARDS AND INTERNET SECURITY
MasterCard International members in the UK, Germany and Brazil will use smart cards to secure Internet banking and shopping. Cardholders will insert smart cards into small handheld readers, enter the PIN they use at ATMs and read an 8-digit number off the reader's display that they will use to authenticate themselves on line.
................ Source: Smart Card Society of Southern Africa, December 2003
CANADA PLANS SMART CARD ID FOR AIRPORT WORKERS
Canada announced plans for a smart card ID for some 130,000 workers at 29 major airports. The chip card will carry two kinds of biometric data, fingerprint and iris, to identify the workers as they access restricted areas. The Canadian Air Transport Authority will issue chip cards that will be contactless. The card will conform to Type B, one of two variants of the international ISO 14443 standard for contactless cards.
................ Source: ACTion News , January 28, 2004
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