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December 2006 • Volume 11 Number 12
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Member Profile: Integrated Engineering Profile
Steve is an active member of ASIS, SIA, and the Smart Card Alliance. He is a member of the Smart Card Alliance Identity Council, and, for the past two years, has held the position of Secretary of the Physical Access Council (PAC). He is a noted international speaker on security technology topics including: “Integrating Smart Card and Biometrics Technology,” “Selling Access Control,” and “The Threat of Cyber Terrorism.”
1. What are Integrated Engineering’s main business profile and offerings? Integrated Engineering is a leader in the smart card industry. We are an ISO 9001 certified company that designs and manufactures contactless smart card readers to ISO open standards. For over 25 years, Integrated Engineering has developed high quality products that provide contactless smart card solutions. We are an organization that continuously develops and markets its products and solutions focused in the area of physical, logical, and e-Document security. We ensure customers global support through offices in The Netherlands, where our factory and head offices are located, and our offices in the U.S.A., in California and Pennsylvania. Integrated Engineering distinguishes itself as a technology partner that provides plug-and-play contactless smart card solutions for our customers. We keep pace with the technology for our business partners so that they can focus on their markets, and not have to worry about having to maintain in-house knowledge in contactless smart card readers. One example of the innovative products we have developed is SmartTOUCH. SmartTOUCH is a reader that combines MIFARE or DESFire contactless smart card technology with proven fingerprint biometric technology. This reader incorporates a complete standalone biometric system, including fingerprint template enrollment and management, eliminating the need for a PC or software. SmartTOUCH can simply replace an existing card reader and increase security by implementing smart card-based fingerprint biometrics without the need to change wiring or add expensive software. Further, our SmartTOUCH line of readers includes models for both indoor and outdoor applications. Other examples of exceptional product engineering include our contactless ISO 14443 level 4 Java card solutions and our advanced e-Document technology adopted by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) e-Passport market. Integrated Engineering is also a leader in border management with our flexible e-Passport readers that provide high security features such Basic SmartID readers can be configured and updated via Integrated Engineering’s patented Flash feature; this allows the reader firmware to be completely reprogrammed in the field by using a configuration card. Simply download the latest firmware and Flash upgrade the SmartID readers to add applications, support new features, change encryption, change biometric algorithms, or adjust to changing requirements. This capability greatly increases the operational life and value of Integrated Engineering’s readers into the future. This is a huge advantage in the government smart card environment due to the rapid changes of smart card technologies and data structures during the past few years. The reader technology offered by Integrated Engineering is available in our stylish SmartID housing, under private label, or in customer-designed housings. Our readers can be configured to support any Wiegand format, serial interfaces including RS-232, RS-422, RS-485, and USB 2.0, TCP/IP, or even clock and data to interface with new and legacy physical access control systems.
2. What role does smart card technology play in supporting Integrated Engineering’s business? Integrated Engineering is completely focused on contactless smart card technology. Our company’s main product is our hardware platform, based on Philips’ contactless reader ICs. We primarily sell this platform to OEM manufacturers who integrate our readers into their products for physical security, logical security, e-Payment and e-Identification markets. One of our biggest advantages is that this single hardware platform works with any contactless smart card technology from any manufacturer, and if you have the right firmware, it will work with any operating system. 3. What trends do you see developing in the market that Integrated Engineering hopes to capitalize on? Over the last five years one of the major trends in the smart card market has been the transition away from proprietary technology and toward open ISO standards achieving interoperability. This has been evident especially in the government market. As a result of this transition there will be more and more global standardization. For example, Federal Information Processing Standard (FIPS) 201 standards are being used by Federal agencies, Transportation Worker Identification Credential (TWIC) standards are covering the transportation sector, and First Responder Authentication Credential (FRAC) standards are evolving for first responders across America. E-identity standards are affecting driver's licenses across Europe and eventually the REAL ID Act will provide standards for all U.S. driver's licenses. Immediately affecting global travel are the ICAO standards for e-Passports as well as the proposed Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative (WHTI) standards for North Americans crossing our borders with Canada and Mexico. In the near future, the EMV standard will drive financial institutions to embed contactless technology in all credit cards. As the smart card market demand moves to open standards, Integrated Engineering has been diligently working to develop products, including various multi-technology readers that provide a bridge from older proprietary technologies to open ISO smart card standards. The SmartTRANS transition reader from Integrated Engineering supports legacy 125 KHz proximity cards, as well as any ISO 14443 contactless card, including the FIPS 201 Personal Identity Verification (PIV) II card, TWIC or FRAC cards, and Common Access Card (CAC), allowing the user to smoothly and easily transition to full compliance with the new standards. This provides users with additional options for migration. One of our major government end users that has been using Integrated Engineering readers for years has loaded their readers with multiple ISO 14443 applications to ease the pain as they transition from preliminary to end point technology. The Integrated Engineering readers for this customer are programmed to simultaneously read secure data from MIFARE, DESFire, PIV II and FRAC cards. ISO 14443 standards have enabled Integrated Engineering to develop a single reader hardware platform that is fully compliant with all levels of the standard. This hardware platform, which is combined with Integrated Engineering’s patented process to program and update the reader firmware in the field to accommodate existing and future applications, provides many benefits including future-proofing the customers’ investment. 4. What obstacles to growth do you see that must be overcome to capitalize on these opportunities? The biggest obstacle -- the selection of the technology for standardization -- has already been eliminated. It is clear now that the ISO 14443 standard is the most-applied contactless smart card standard with the biggest global installed base. For interoperability, parties only need to agree on the data model programmed on the cards, and that only requires time and negotiation. Privacy concerns regarding RFID technology are a current key issue with the significant potential to affect public acceptance of contactless smart card technology. Unfortunately, many people have lumped all of the various types of RF technology into the same bucket and do not differentiate the technologies available for different applications. Therefore some believe the RFID tag on a shampoo bottle and the latest high security contactless government ID credential all have the same characteristics and potential security weaknesses. As we know this is not the case, it will require educating the market and users on the significant differences and security features used in secure contactless smart card-based RF applications to overcome public concerns. 5. What do you see are the key factors driving smart card technology in the market? At this point in time, government applications have been driving the contactless smart card market for the reasons of security, flexibility, and interoperability. Government users were some of the first adopters embracing contact-based smart card solutions for physical and logical access due to increased security and the processing capability of the card. The new contactless smart cards provide much faster communication and equal, or even superior, security and processing features to the contact-based smart cards. The lifetime expectation of contactless smart cards is longer and better than contact smart cards as they wear more slowly. Based on these considerations, governments are moving rapidly toward deploying contactless smart card solutions for physical access control, secure ID credentials and travel documents. With the new triple interface cards (contactless, contact and USB) on the horizon, the market will have the best of all worlds. Also, the threat of terrorism and issues of cyber security are compelling the demand for faster and more secure ID authentication, hence the interest in biometric applications. Contactless smart card technology combined with biometrics provides an easy and effective way of implementing a very high level of security for authenticating a user to their credential. The speeding up of financial transactions while improving security and reducing fraud are driving contactless smart card payment systems, which will also move the market toward broader acceptance of contactless smart card technology in general. 6. How do you see your involvement in the Alliance and Physical Access Council helping Integrated Engineering become successful? The Smart Card Alliance helps Integrated Engineering by educating the market on the features, benefits, security, and overall advantages of contactless smart card technology. The Smart Card Alliance supports our business as a technology advocate and lends additional voices to the public debate and ultimate acceptance of smart card technology. Educating the user community is a key factor in public acceptance of contactless technology. Through smart card-centric white papers, conferences, newsletters, position papers, and forums, the Smart Card Alliance provides a valuable educational resource to member companies and the public. Further, the ideas and information exchanged through regular interaction with peer members of the Smart Card Alliance are invaluable to me. This information is useful in determining market direction and thereby driving product development, as well as sales and marketing strategies for Integrated Engineering in the North America. I find that the Smart Card Alliance is valuable in its ability to rally member input in order to quickly and effectively respond to public issues and concerns regarding smart card technology. More and more, the press looks to the Alliance to provide expert opinion and the collective position of member companies in public debates concerning smart card technology. 7. In your role as secretary of the Smart Card Alliance Physical Access Council, what do you see are primary goals for the Council for the next year? In the role of Physical Access Council Secretary for the last two years, and as one of the original founding members, I have seen significant growth in the Council’s membership and activities. Originally we focused on simply recruiting new members and encouraging participation. We then turned our focus to the impact of Homeland Security Presidential Directive12 (HSPD-12) and ultimately became a leading resource for information on FIPS 201 through activities such as creating a white paper that distilled down the requirements into usable tools. The Council also assisted in the development of the accompanying standards as well as positively influencing the specifying entities within the government. Continuing along the path that has been successful for the Council, I see education as the primary goal of the Physical Access Council for the coming year. By keeping focus on smart card technology in physical access control, we continue to be a technology advocate in this important and expanding market segment. We have the member resources to be a leading knowledge source for applying the technology, encouraging best practices, and responding to current issues. 8. Describe how Integrated Engineering has demonstrated leadership, innovation, and a commitment to designing, developing, manufacturing, or integrating smart card technology that represents its leadership in the smart card industry. Integrated Engineering is an innovator in developing contactless smart card technology. For the e-Passport market we developed anti-eavesdropping (AED) technology that has been adopted by ICAO. AED- and BAC-enabled e-Passport readers protect privacy and provide the U.S. government with the tools necessary to address privacy concerns and move forward with deployment. Integrated Engineering’s e-Passport reader was the first reader to pass ICAO certification and has been rated the fastest and most versatile operating-system-independent e-Passport reader confirmed at the ICAO interoperability trials. Integrated Engineering is responsible for many other firsts in the smart card industry. Integrated Engineering developed the first ISO 14443 physical access control reader to automatically support both type A and B chips. Integrated Engineering manufactured the first DESFire readers for physical security. Integrated Engineering was the first company to develop and offer a software development kit for DESFire technology and the first company to design and build a commercial reader that supports Philips SmartMX chip technology. We also developed the first PIV II end-point reader and the first multi-technology reader (13.56 MHz + 125KHz) certified by GSA and included on GSA's Approved Products List (APL) for FIPS 201 applications.
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Access Control (BAC) and Anti-Eavesdropping (AED). Logical access control is supported through Integrated Engineering’s SmartLOGON line of high-speed desktop readers (USB 2.0) that support both PC/SC and CCID read/write modes. 
