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Executive Director's Letter
 Dear members and friends of the Alliance:
You may have noticed a significant increase recently in the number of press announcements and media stories where my name or the Smart Card Alliance has been mentioned. This is no accident or coincidence. This is the result of hard work and careful messaging efforts being applied to topics like ePassports, the Western Hemisphere Traveler Initiative, HSPD-12, contactless payments, and public transit though our media outreach. It seems to be working. As smart card adoption across multiple markets continues to forge ahead and begins to impact the lives of millions of ordinary U.S. citizens, chip technology has come out of the shadows of trade journals and technical blogs and is suddenly hitting the media mainstream in newspapers, radio talk shows, and even television news programs.
This month's headline-grabbing story in Wired magazine about the German researcher who claimed to have cloned his German ePassport chip is a good example of this. It set off a chain reaction of national and international interest that resulted in great coverage for the Alliance and the smart card industry. Reacting quickly to debunk the reported claims that this cloning example constituted a major vulnerability in chip-enabled ePassports that criminals could use to enter countries illegally the Alliance gathered its industry experts together and issued a press release that refuted those claims. In the release and subsequent press briefing conference call, we restated how the multiple layers of security work in the new passports, with the chip's ability to protect the integrity of the picture and personal data, the locking of that data using basic access control, and the protective shielding used to thwart skimming attacks. The heightened fears raised by the cloning report coupled with the announced start of the government rollout of U.S. ePassports this week made this a national news story. The subsequent counterclaims from the Alliance led to good balanced articles by the Associated Press and the Wall Street Journal. These print stories influenced several requests for radio interviews, plus a call from NBC News and the FOX Network asking me to do on-camera interviews for their stories about ePassport security which ran nationally on August 15th and 16th. (Members can check our web site to view my 10 seconds of fame.)
Don't think that the passport issue is the only topic that has our attention. The future of the Western Hemisphere Traveler Initiative (WHTI) PASS Card program is hanging in the balance as the Leahy-Stevens amendment to the homeland security appropriations bill waits for the summer recess to conclude. This bill, which adds 17 months to the implementation deadline of December 31, 2007, also calls upon DHS to use the same ISO/IEC 14443 standard chip technology used in ePassports or justify to Congress why it's not used. The Alliance has gone on record challenging DHS to do a thorough evaluation of contactless chip technology vs. the favored approach using EPC Gen 2 RFID technology. This evaluation could measure any supposed transaction speed advantages that the long range RF technology might offer since either choice requires a border security officer to physically examine each individual travel document at the checkpoint anyway. Add in HSPD-12 questions about whether the government and industry are ready for the October 27, 2006 deadline and the continuing news coverage about TWIC, contactless payment cards, transit pilots and health ID card pilots in New York City and we have our PR team in hyperdrive. I only wish I could find the warp-speed setting on my personal gear box so that I could keep up.
No doubt by now you are aware of our next conference, the 2006 Annual Conference in San Diego, in October. We have been sending out email notices and save-the-date cards, and placing banner ads everywhere to make sure everyone knows. We have a star-studded lineup of market-related keynote speakers led by R. James Woolsey, former CIA Director for the government track; Paul Korczak from MTA/New York City Transit and Will Judge from London Transportation's Oyster Card Program from the transportation industry; Mauricio Cuehlo from Brazil's Instituto Nacional de Technologia da Informacao (ITI) national digital credentialing project for the international identity track; and additional presenters not yet announced representing the financial payments and healthcare industries. We also have the emerging technology and innovation showcase demonstrations and the Outstanding Smart Card Achievement (OSCA) award presentations to bring new information and excitement to the event. We are still accepting sponsorship requests. The deadline for submitting your OSCA award nominations is August 25; the emerging technology showcase applications are due by September 15th. Visit the Alliance web site at www.smartcardalliance.org for the latest news and information.
One final note to pass on this month has to do with membership and member dues. Those members whose renewal date is effective September 1st have already received their renewal letters and invoices and are aware that we are raising the fees for all membership levels beginning in September. Raising our membership fees is not something we did lightly. In fact, the Board met in July to discuss the Alliance's actual performance against our plan for 2005 and 2006 and the expectations for next year and confirmed that the Smart Card Alliance is in the best organizational shape since 2001. Membership value is increasing as more and more programs are added, the quality and quantity of white papers increase, our conferences grow, and media outreach improves. What hasn't changed is the staffing level to support all of these improvements. So, we are going to invest in the future by investing in ourselves to grow the operational staff and add additional contracted resources to continue to provide the quality benefits the members of the Smart Card Alliance and the entire smart card industry demand. The additional resources will keep us growing and improving during the prime growth years for the smart card industry that lie ahead. I hope you all will continue to support this organization despite the rising cost to your businesses and government organizations.
Randy Vanderhoof, Executive Director
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