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December 2005 • Volume 10 Number 12 |
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Executive Director's Letter Dear members and friends of the Alliance: First let me extend my warmest wishes to every one of our readers for a Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, and Happy New Year. It is hard to believe the year is coming to a close so quickly. 2005 has been a fantastic year for the Smart Card Alliance and for the North American and Latin American smart card industry that we serve. We have witnessed a serious momentum shift in the financial markets this year now that contactless payments have been launched into the mainstream consumer markets. Depending on where you live and who you bank with, millions of consumers can now get smart credit or debit cards - AND USE THEM! For example, I recently received a Chase Bank "blink" card (with contactless technology inside) in the mail as a normal replacement for my card that was about to expire. Where I live, I am surrounded by CVS/pharmacy stores, Wawa and 7-Eleven convenience stores, McDonald's fast food restaurants, and AMC and Regal movie theatre complexes. I have more than 10 retail outlets within 5 miles of my home that I can shop in and use my new contactless smart card. This time last year, there were none. My wife has both a contactless card and a keychain device, so she has finally learned what smart card technology is. She can now buy her coffee in the morning on her way to work without using the last dollar my kids left in her purse before leaving for school. It took more than ten years of her listening to me talk about the technology before she was able to use her first smart card. Her reaction was: "Hey...that was cool!" Redemption at last! Now my kids want cards too, but that is another issue entirely. In the government identity markets, the industry weathered significant delays in the standardization and testing phases of government identity cards and travel documents, but it appears that the end is in sight. Recent technology decisions and standards for both the HSPD 12 government employee identity credential and the State Department electronic passport have satisfied in the best way possible the differences among the industry, the issuing agencies, and the standards bodies. Both programs can now move forward to address the implementation and assurance testing procedures that will precede the availability of commercial products in the market. This week, NIST made public the long-awaited, revised SP 800-76 document that defines that the government PIV card specification will use minutiae-based fingerprint template technology rather than full image biometrics. This was a hard-fought battle by the smart card and biometrics industries to change the earlier NIST position, so that current industry-standard chip technology would satisfy the government's ID card requirements -- giving hope that the October 2006 deadline for having commercial products available for the government market is achievable.
This month Smart Card Talk spoke with Gary Glickman, President & Chief Executive Officer, for Giesecke & Devrient's U.S. Cards and Solutions Division. Mr. Glickman is an executive with 25 years of experience, consulting to state and local government, federal government, multi-national corporations, financial institutions, and retail industries. His specialized expertise is in the application and implementation of electronic commerce, smart card, biometric, and identity management solutions. Mr. Glickman recently served as Chief Marketing Officer of MAXIMUS, a leading provider of consulting, health and human services management, and information technology services to the government. He previously founded Phoenix Planning and Evaluation, Ltd., a consulting firm that specialized in electronic commerce, smart cards, and electronic benefits transfer before being acquired by MAXIMUS in 1998. On October 1, 2004, Mr. Glickman assumed responsibilities for the U.S. Card and Solutions business unit of Giesecke & Devrient (G&D), which includes contact and contactless smart cards, traditional magnetic stripe cards and card solutions for the government, enterprise, transit, health, payment and telecommunications market areas. Mr. Glickman is based out of G&D's North American Headquarters, located in the technology corridor of Northern Virginia, and serves as CEO for the Cards subsidiary, Giesecke & Devrient Cardtech, Inc. Mr. Glickman holds a B.A. degree in American Studies/Sociology from Brandeis University in Waltham, Massachusetts and an MBA in Economics and Finance from the Stern School, New York University, in New York, New York.
Secure Identification Systems: The Role of Smart Cards in Ensuring the Chain of Trust Identification (ID) systems are used by both public and private organizations and may operate completely within a single organization (an employee badge), span multiple organizations (across government bodies, between businesses and their customers), or extend out to the general population. Given the complexity of the identity verification problem, the number of involved parties, and the number of choices in ID system designs, it isn't surprising that many of today's identification systems are vulnerable. To address these vulnerabilities and implement a secure ID system, organizations must define a chain of trust that encompasses all of the secure ID system processes and components. This chain of trust starts with the definition of a trust model, security policies, and business agreements among the organizations involved in the secure ID system and includes all of the components of the ID system - from the processes and documents that are used to initially verify an individual's identity and enroll that individual into the ID system to the usage of the system to the overall management of the ID system. This article describes the chain of trust that is required to authenticate an individual's identity and ensure the validity of the ID and credential once the ID has been issued and is in use. The use of a smart card-based ID is described to illustrate the strongest possible chain of trust.
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Executive
Director's Letter
