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February 2005 • Volume 10 Number 2 |
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Executive Director's Letter Dear members and friends of the Alliance, "Where does the time go?" is an overused expression in my house, and since February is an anniversary month for me at the Smart Card Alliance, that expression has now become part of my lexicon at work as well. It was three years ago this month that Donna Farmer, then President and CEO of the Smart Card Alliance, announced her resignation and the Board asked me to become the interim director for the coming transition months for the organization. I said yes and things from that point have moved at a blinding pace ever since. As I begin my third year as Executive Director, I feel this year will be even faster-moving and more exciting than the last two years combined. I hope you are able to come along for the ride! February also marks the mid-point in our organization's fiscal year. So I thought I would reflect this month on some of the "state of the industry" issues and give you a mid-term "state of the Alliance" report. Two important industry-shaping activities on the security and identity management side of the smart card industry have been Presidential Directive HSPD-12, and the U.S. State Department's rush towards electronic passports that are built with contactless chip technology. Neither project directly relates to the other. HSPD-12 provides a mandate for secure ID credentials for all Federal agencies and their contractors, while ePassports is a public-facing initiative since more than 7 million U.S. passports are issued each year. Both projects are breaking new ground in defining interoperability on a national and international scale. The level of standards engagement and policy-making by powerful bodies like ICAO, NIST, ANSI, and ISO and the smart card industry is unprecedented. For the FIPS 201 standard for Personal Identity Verification (PIV) being put forth by NIST under the directive by the Secretary of Commerce, the Smart Card Alliance members representing the interests of the industry and government end user community have fought hard to have a voice in the process and have been instrumental in getting the standards bodies to listen to their concerns and to work on areas of common interest. The ePassport testing and procurement program has been delayed twice but is now underway again after a vendor protest led to the Bureau of Consular Affairs inviting four additional vendors to join the evaluation process and resulting in a total of eight awards. All of the awardees are current Smart Card Alliance members. The Alliance has provided industry support, networking and resource documentation for the FIPS and ePassport programs, including publication in January of a 2-page position document, RFID Tags vs. Contactless Smart Card Technology, and a related RFID Tags, Contactless Smart Cards and Electronic Passports Frequently Asked Questions document; both reports have been widely distributed.
1. What are Gemplus' main business profile and offerings? Gemplus is the world's leading player in the smart card industry and has sold over five billion smart cards worldwide. Founded in 1988, Gemplus employs more than 5000 people in 37 countries around the world. Our international headquarters is located in Luxembourg, with our North America headquarters in Horsham, Pennsylvania - just outside of Philadelphia. We have the largest R&D team in the industry with internationally renowned researchers in security and cryptography. We are traded on both the NASDAQ as GEMP and Euronext as Sicovam 5768. Our revenue in 2004 was 865 million Euros. With our core focus on security, Gemplus delivers a wide range of solutions in a variety of markets around the world including identity management, wireless telecommunications, banking, retail, transportation, healthcare, public telephony, wireless LAN (WLAN), Pay-TV, e-government, and access control.
Smart Cards and the IT Infrastructure
Strong authentication for logical access requires the use of multiple authentication factors. Smart card technology - typically used in conjunction with a PIN to unlock the card - is increasingly being used to offer the critical second or third factor of authentication that makes logical access more secure. Since smart cards can also support multiple applications, a single smart ID card can perform multiple functions. For example, the same smart ID card can allow an individual to enter a building securely, log onto the corporate network securely, sign documents securely, encrypt e-mail and transactions, and pay for lunch at the organization's cafeteria. This flexibility makes it easy for organizations to develop a strong business case for smart-card-based access control systems. Modern desktop operating systems offer a significant level of smart-card-related functionality, through either built-in (out-of-the-box) support or commercial add-on software packages. This article describes the capabilities built into the Microsoft® Windows® operating systems and the freely available Linux operating systems. More sophisticated capabilities are also available from third-party vendors.
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Virtually every day another news story highlights the importance of network security - corporate networks are breached, databases are accessed by unauthorized individuals, and identities are stolen and used to conduct fraudulent transactions. As a result, both businesses and governments are evaluating or implementing new identity management systems to provide more secure logical access. 
Executive
Director's Letter
