Smart Card Talk

February 2007 • Volume 12 Number 2

Council and Task Force Report

Alliance Members: Participation in all current councils is open to any Smart Card Alliance member who wishes to contribute to the council projects. If you are interested in participating in any of the active councils, please contact Cathy Medich.

Transportation Council

The Council has elected its 2007 Transportation Council officers and Steering Committee seats.

Council chair: Paul Korczak, NYC Transit
Council vice chair - transit: Craig Roberts, UTA
Council vice chair - parking: Ian Newberg, Parkeon
Steering Committee:

Transportation industry: Chris Cipperly, WMATA; Tim Weisenberger, U.S. DOT/Volpe Center
Chip/card suppliers: Manny Menard, Gemalto; Mike Meringer, G&D
Systems integrators: Willy Dommen, Booz Allen Hamilton; Mike Nash, ACS
Transportation system suppliers: David deKozan, Cubic; Michael Laezza, ERG Group
Financial industry: Burt Wilhelm, MasterCard; Jennifer Hale, American Express
Advisory members: Mike Dinning, U.S. DOT/Volpe Center;Greg Garback, WMATA; Martin Schroeder, APTA

An in-person, members-only Council meeting will be held March 7-9, 2007 in Salt Lake City, UT. If you are an Alliance member and would like to attend this meeting, please contact Cathy Medich.
The Transportation Council is working on a new white paper that will provide an overview of an approach for transit/financial payment convergence that leverages conventional co-branding affinity card business models and the multi-application capabilities provided by smart card technology. Please contact the project co-leads, David deKozan (david.dekozan@cubic.com) or Brian Stein (bstein@scheidt-bachmann-usa.com), or Cathy Medich (cmedich@smartcardalliance.org) if you'd like to participate in this project.
If you are interested in participating in the Transportation Council, please contact the Council chair, Paul Korczak (paul.korczak@nyct.com), vice chairs, Craig Roberts (croberts@uta.cog.ut.us) and Ian Newberg (inewberg@moorestown.parkeon.com), or Cathy Medich.

Physical Access Council

The Physical Access Council will be opening nominations for the 2007 Steering Committee this month. Any member of the Alliance can be nominated or can nominate themselves to serve on the Steering Committee. Information about the Steering Committee election will be distributed via the council email distribution list.
The Smart Card Alliance Physical Access Council, International Biometrics Industry Association (IBIA) and Security Industry Association (SIA) have been participating in the National Maritime Security Advisory Committee (NMSAC) Transportation Worker Identity Credential (TWIC) Working Group to assist in developing the specification for a contactless biometric reader that protects the privacy of the biometric data in an operationally efficient way. The group is now commenting on the draft specification. If you would like to participate in this Council project, please contact Walter Hamilton (whamilton@idtp.com), who is leading this effort.
If you are interested in participating in the Physical Access Council, please contact Council chair, Dwayne Pfeiffer (dwayne.pfeiffer@ngc.com), vice chair Bob Merkert (rmerkert@scmmicro.com), or Cathy Medich.

Healthcare Council

The Healthcare Council has completed a new white paper, "Smart Cards in U.S. Healthcare: Benefits for Patients, Providers and Payers." The white paper will be published during the week of February 26.
The Council is soliciting members who would like to write case studies or implementation profiles of smart card implementations in the U.S. healthcare industry. Members would write these case studies, with the Council and Alliance editing and publishing the final documents. If you would like a copy of the case study template, please contact Cathy Medich.
If you are interested in participating in the Healthcare Council, please contact Council chair Frank Avignone (favignone@healthmeans.com), vice chair Chuck Wilson (chuck.wilson3@verizon.net), or Cathy Medich.

Contactless Payments Council

The Council has elected its 2007 Steering Committee. The new Steering Committee includes:

Card issuers: Jennifer Hale, American Express; Mike Kutsch, Chase
Card associations: Ken Moy, MasterCard; Liane Redford, Visa USA
Merchants: Greg Garback, WMATA
Financial payment processors: Sunil Dewan, First Data
Terminal vendors: Mohammad Khan, ViVOtech; Rob Regan, VeriFone
Card manufacturers: Rod Donnelly, CPI Group; Rahul Gadkari, Gemalto
Chip vendors: Paul Legacki, Infineon; Charlie Walton, Inside Contactless
Systems integrators/consultants: Brian Barrett, PricewaterhouseCoopers, Debbie Baxley, IBM
Personalization bureaus: Garfield Smith, Oberthur; Kim Madore, G&D

The Council published an extensive contactless payments frequently-asked questions document. The FAQ is available at http://www.smartcardalliance.org/pages/publications-contactless-payments-faq.
The Council will be publishing the merchant implementation guide that covers infrastructure requirements and best practices, training and education and that was developed by the Merchant Roll-out Work Group. A companion white paper is also being developed.
The Issuer Work Group is planning to hold a web seminar, with issuers as the target audience, in early 2007.
If you are interested in participating in the Contactless Payments Council, please contact the Council co-chairs, Francine Dubois (f.dubois@oberthurcs.com), Wendy Humphrey (wendy.humphrey@firstdata.com) or Mohammad Khan (khanm@vivotech.com), or Cathy Medich.

Identity Council

The Identity Council published 2 new documents, "Best Practices for the Use of RF-Enabled Technology in Identity Management" and a companion FAQ. These are high-level documents targeted to policy makers and the media that state the Smart Card Alliance recommendations for best practices when implementing an identity verification system with RF-enabled technology. The documents are available at http://www.smartcardalliance.org/pages/publications-rf-technology-best-practices.
The Council will be electing its 2007 Steering Committee, with nominations closing this week. Information about the Steering Committee election will be distributed via the council email distribution list.
If you are interested in participating in the Identity Council, please contact the Council co-chairs, Neville Pattinson (Neville.pattinson@gemalto.com) or Marty Dugan (mdugan@viisage.com), or Cathy Medich.

Other Councils

A members-only council web site is available at http://www.sca-councils.org. This is a password-protected site that contains council working documents and contact lists. Each Council area has a separate password since Councils may have different membership policies. If you are a Smart Card Alliance member and would like access to the council site, please contact Cathy Medich.
If you are interested in forming or participating in an Alliance council, contact Cathy Medich. Click here to download a description of the council structure, proposal process and council interest feedback form.

New Members

PPG Industries, Inc., Monroeville, PA www.teslin.com
Membership Level: General
Member Contact: Pamela Campbell, Global Manager Market Development
Description: Manufacturer of Teslin, a synthetic printing sheet for passports, ID cards, and payments and loyalty cards

JC Simonetti & Associates, Inc., Willowbrook, IL
Membership Level: Associate
Member Contact: Joseph Simonetti, President
Description: Provides revenue management technologies and services to the public transportation industry

Inside Contactless (Upgrade to Leadership Council)
Membership Level: Leadership Council
Member Contact: Didier Serra, General Manager
Description: Leading manufacturer of contactless smart cards

Web Site News

New content includes:

New Contactless Payments Frequently-Asked Questions document [ click here ]
New Identity Council report, "Best Practices for the Use of RF-Enabled Technology in Identity Management," [ click here ]
Information about the Smart Card Alliance 6th Annual Smart Cards in Government and Exhibition 2007, [ click here ]
Contactless payments news feed [ click here ]
Access to new Aberdeen Group report, "Retail Contactless Payment Systems Benchmark Report: Improving Customer Retention and Loyalty" [ click here ]

January 2007 web statistics

63,792 visitor sessions for the month
2,057 visitor sessions per day
308,609 total page views for the month
71,794 Industry News items viewed
4,222 Card Reader Catalog items displayed
5,763 PDF downloads

If you have any suggestions on content that you'd like to see on the Alliance web site, please send them to info@smartcardalliance.org.

Alliance in the News

The Alliance has an active communications program to promote industry messages in business, vertical market, and technology publications. Coverage results from both Alliance press releases and interviews with publications writing articles about smart cards. Selected recent coverage is shown below with links to online articles.

Access Control & Security Systems, 1/30/2007, Best practices for use of RF technology in ID management [ link to article ]
Broadband Wireless Exchange Magazine, 1/31/2007, Smart Card Alliance Releases RFID Best Practices [ link to article ]
Cards International, 1/31/2007, Paper makes way for payment cards [link not available]
Chain Store Age, 2/1/2007, Sour on security [link not available]
Contactless News, 1/31/2007, Smart Card Alliance recommends best practices for RF technology [ link to article ]
CRM Buyer, 1/2/2007, RFID Use Continues to Fuel Privacy Fears [ link to article ]
E-Commerce Times, 1/2/2007, RFID Use Continues to Fuel Privacy Fears [ link to article ]
eWeek, 1/30/2007, Smart Card Alliance Releases Security, Privacy Guidelines [ link to article ]
Extreme Tech, 1/30/2007, Smart Card Alliance Releases Security, Privacy Guidelines [ link to article ]
finextra.com, 1/29/2007, Smart Card Alliance outlines best practices for RF technology [ link to article ]
GCN, 2/19/2007, DHS drops using RFID tags for U.S. Visit [ link to article ]
GCN, 2/5/2007, Analysts are split on TWIC: Some claim flaws in credential security, while TSA and others back the program [ link to article ]
GCN, 1/30/2007, TSA, industry dispute TWIC flaw claims [ link to article ]
Gmtoday, 1/26/2007, Uses of radio frequency ID raise doubts [ link to article ]
Government Technology, 2/13/2007, Smart Cards Key to Information and Identity Security, Says Gates, Others [ link to article ]
Government Technology, 1/29/2007, Smart Card Alliance Recommends Best Practices for use of RF Technology in Identity Management [ link to article ]
Minnesota Technology, 1/1/2007, New developments in the RFID realm [ link to article ]
MoreRFID, 1/30/2007, Smart Card Alliance Releases RFID Best Practices [ link to article ]
PCMagazine, 1/30/2007, Smart Card Alliance Releases Security, Privacy Guidelines [ link to article ]
Seacoastonline.com, 1/25/2007, Security worries [ link to article ]
Secure ID News, 1/31/2007, Smart Card Alliance Releases RFID Best Practices [ link to article ]
Smart Card Trends, 2/9/2007, Smart Cards Key to Information and Identity Security Vision Bill Gates Presented in RSA Keynote [ link to article ]
Smart Card Trends, 1/18/2007, Smart Card Alliance Brings Advances in Chip Technology to RSA Conference 2007 [ link to article ]
TechNewsWorld, 1/2/2007, RFID Use Continues to Fuel Privacy Fears [ link to article ]
TechNewsWorld.com, 1/2/2007, RFID Use Continues to Fuel Privacy Fears [ link to article ]
UsingRFID, 2/20/2007, Smart Card Alliance addresses RF identity issues [ link not available]
Washington Technology, 1/31/2007, Government, industry groups defend TWIC program [ link to article ]

SCA Latin America News

The Smart Card Alliance Latin America project kicked off on October 19, 2004 with the presentation of the Department of Commerce Market Developer Cooperator Program (MDCP) award totaling $288,000 that forms a partnering effort between the International Trade Administration and SCA to develop international trade and support education, training, and resource development for smart cards in Mexico, Brazil, and the Caribbean Islands. The Alliance staff has held organizing meetings with ITA field office personnel in Mexico and Brazil to discuss ways to bring smart card awareness and education to the government and commercial markets in those countries. The Alliance has also met with ITA personnel based in Washington, DC, Philadelphia, and Miami who are in support roles and are prepared to assist the Alliance's Latin American project.

In July 2005 the Latin America Chapter was launched. Organizations with smart card-related business interests in all Latin American countries and the Caribbean, plus any organization based in North America or internationally with interests in the Latin America markets, should contact Edgar Betts, Manager Business Development - Latin America at 1-954-590-3795 or ebetts@smartcardalliance.org. Memberships are available for Leadership Council, General, Government, and Associate levels.

A recent report released by Frost & Sullivan called The Americas Smart Card Market Analysis projected microprocessor smart card shipments of 136.4 million in 2005, and with over a 59 percent annual growth rate projected through 2010. The Latin American smart card market growth is due to many market factors including the migration of mobile telecommunications operators to GSM technology, the migration to EMV in the financial sector, the move to smart transit fare cards and new government and commercial secure identification initiatives. Responding to these market factors, the Smart Card Alliance today announced the formation of a new Latin American chapter to bring together smart card suppliers, partners and customers in order to address the challenges facing smart card deployment in the region.

“The Latin American smart card market is now emerging and could develop more rapidly than other markets by effectively learning from similar smart card initiatives and by forming business partnerships that can quickly deliver successful implementations,” said Randy Vanderhoof, executive director of the Smart Card Alliance.

The main mission of the Smart Card Alliance Latin American chapter is in line with the overall goal of the Alliance: to stimulate the understanding, adoption, use and widespread application of smart cards. The Alliance plans to use specific projects such as bi-lingual education programs, market research, advocacy, industry relations and open forums to keep Latin American chapter organization members connected to industry leaders and innovative thought.

“The Smart Card Alliance has played a valuable role in developing the U.S. market in both the public and private sector. Our organization provides an educational and collaborative forum in which all of the stakeholders—manufacturers, issuers and end users—can work together to develop the cross-industry real-world solutions needed to deploy smart card systems. Our organization is uniquely positioned to bring a collective energy and focus to this technology in Latin America,” said Vanderhoof.

Next Steps:

Below is a summary of the important Latin America Chapter programs and industry activities planned for 2007.

White Paper translation. The Smart Card Alliance Latin America (SCALA) has translated five white papers into Spanish and Portuguese to allow the local markets to have access to valuable information in their language. The selection of the white paper to be translated was important in order to be significant to the local markets of Latin America. This action helps the Alliance create an image of not only a U.S. focused institution, but an international and local.
Website. The Smart Card Alliance Latin America (SCALA) website; though very informational of our institution it has limited deliverable and resources useful for the local markets.
Online Educational Program. The Smart Card Alliance Latin America (SCALA) in its efforts to expand its website deliverables to the market it has agreed to host a member online educational program. The program contains information about smart cards in both Spanish and English, covering from basic to some advanced knowledge.
Mexico Conference. The Smart Card Alliance together with Global Platform will present the Smart Cards in Government and Banking Mexico 2007 Conference on May 8 – 9, 2007 in Mexico City. Conference registration information, sponsorship opportunities and exhibiting opportunities will be available shortly. For more information, contact Edgar Betts at ebetts@smartcardalliance.org.
Educational Institute – Certification Course. The Smart Card Alliance Latin America (SCALA) Physical Access Council has worked on developing an Educational Institute (E.I.) course that will be used at Expo Seguridad Mexico conference in April 2007 on the use of smart cards for physical access. This course will be a classroom style course provided to the attendees of Expo Seguridad Mexico in the security market. It is intended to be a follow-up course to the physical access course that is provided by The Latin American Security Association (ALAS) at their conference events.
Educational/Promotional Video. The Smart Card Alliance Latin America (SCALA) has held meetings with The Latin American Security Association (ALAS) and Obraweb to create online videos for the SCALA website. The idea would be to film one of SCALA’s Educational Institutes (E.I.) in high quality video to provide industry information and promote attendance to the Alliance.
Member invitation. The Smart Card Alliance Latin America (SCALA) with the leadership of the Transportation Council has developed a list of organizations in the transportation industry to send a formal invitation to join the Alliance and the transportation council. Due to the limited response of organizations in the region to join the Alliance and participate, the leadership of this council has agreed to use the contacts that the Alliance has acquired and invite them behalf of the transportation council to join our organization.
Articles for targeted industry magazines. The Alliance Latin America, Media Outreach Council has established several meeting in Brazil with other participating member organizations to organize the direction and responsibility of the council. As the council achieved it organizational logistics it began developing articles for publishing at identified magazines on behalf of the Alliance.

How to get involved:

If you would like to get involved in any of the Latin American activities listed above or wish to be added to the contact list for future announcements, please send an email to info@smartcardalliance.org.