The Alliance is seeking current and new members interested in participating in the opportunities involving the SCA Latin America project described below to contact the Alliance main office at 1-800-556-6828 or via email to info@smartcardalliance.org.

The Smart Card Alliance Latin America project kicked off on October 19, 2005 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.

Recently, 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.

Next Steps:
 
Having completed visits to Sao Paulo, Brazil and Mexico City, Mexico to attend several smart card-related industry conferences, the Alliance has now gathered enough information to determine that there is sufficient interest in creating a Latin American Chapter organization of the Smart Card Alliance.  Invitations will be sent to leading smart card organizations in Latin America to become “Foundation Members” of the new chapter.  These foundation memberships will form the advisory committee for further chapter activities and help with recruitment or additional chapter members.  Current white papers and reports from the work groups and councils are being translated in Portuguese and Spanish for the chapter members to use to promote the widespread adoption, understanding, usage, and application of smart cards.


The Smart Card Alliance Latin American chapter will play a significant role in the USA/Latin American Conference during the Smart Card Alliance 2005 Fall Annual Conference that takes place in Miami Florida, October 18-21, 2005.

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.

Secure Personal ID Task Force
The Secure Personal ID Task Force has published 2 new briefing documents, "Contactless Smart Chip Technology: The Business Benefits," and "Contactless Smart Chip Technology: Providing Strong Support for Security and Privacy." These documents are now available on the Smart Card Alliance web site. If you are interested in participating in the Task Force, please email Cathy Medich, Task Force Chair.

Terminal and eTransaction Infrastructure Task Force
The Terminal and eTransaction Infrastructure Task Force report, "Mobile Payments at the Physical Point-of-Sale: Assessing U.S. Market Drivers and Industry Directions," is available to all members at no charge from the members-only web site and to the general public from the Alliance web store. If you are interested in participating in the Task Force, please email Cathy Medich, Task Force Chair.

FIPS 140 Smart Card Task Force
The FIPS 140 Smart Card Task Force is working on a project to investigate and define a common card platform that allows the establishment of a reference against which applet developers can certify. If you are interested in participating in this Task Force, please email Cathy Medich.

Transportation Council
The Transportation Council has launched its first project, a white paper on the use of smart cards for parking payment and the benefits of extending contactless transit payment cards to parking. The project is being led by David deKozan from Cubic and Chris Cipperly from WMATA and is actively seeking contributors. If you are interested in participating in the project, please email Cathy Medich. The Transportation Council Steering Committee is planning a conference call in July to recruit additional Alliance and new member participation in Council activities. Additional information about this call will be available in early July.   If you are interested in participating in the Transportation Council, please contact Council co-chairs, Greg Garback (ggarback@wmata.com) or Mike Dinning (dinning@volpe.dot.gov).

Physical Access Council
The Physical Access Council is currently working on an executive summary white paper    describing how FIPS 201, SP 800-73, and SP 800-76 affect implementation of government physical access control systems.  Bob Merkert, Council Chair, is leading this project. The Council is also working on a second project - to develop a question-and-answer document describing FIPS 201 PIV II implementation issues related to compliance with FIPS 201, SP 800-73, SP 800-76, and PACS 2.2 for physical access control systems.  Dwayne Pfeiffer, Council Vice Chair, is leading this project. If you are interested in participating in the Physical Access Council, please contact Council Chair, Bob Merkert (rmerkert@scmmicro.com) or Vice Chair, Dwayne Pfeiffer (dwayne.pfeiffer@ngc.com).

Healthcare Council
The new Healthcare Council is currently forming a cross-industry steering committee and will be launching its first set of projects later this summer. If you are interested in participating in the Healthcare Council, please contact Council co-chairs, Frank Avignone (favignone@healthmeans.com) or Paul Davis (pdavis3@mindspring.com).

Other Councils
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

Hirsch Electronics Corporation – Santa Ana, CA www.hirschelectronics.com
Membership level:  General
Contact:  Lars R. Suneborn, Director, Government Programs
Description:  high security access control systems
 
Competech Smart Card Solutions – Moonachie, NJ www.competech.com
Membership level: General
Contact: Gregory Thornton, CEO
Description:  software for medical, business, and government environment

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.

• ATM Marketplace.com, 6/10/05, "EMV: When will it hit the U.S.?" [ link to article ]
• The Baltimore Sun, 5/22/05, "Debating the safety of a tiny technology advocates of radio frequency ID tags in passports say they're efficient and secure, while critics say they make Westerners easy targets" [link not available]
• The Baltimore Sun, 5/22/05, "'Smart' passports worry some" [link not available]
• Business Travel News, 5/16/05, "ACTE Spotlights RFID Passport Privacy Risks" [ link to article ]
• Calgary Herald, 5/29/05, "Buy, in the blink of an eye: Just wave your credit card at the register" [link not available]
• CardLine, 5/6/05, "Smart Card Alliance Backs Governments ePassport Plans" [ link to article ]
• Charleston Gazette, 5/31/05, "Wave-and-go credit cards allow faster, no-contact buying" [link not available]
• Chicago Tribune, 5/31/05, "Passport ID chips raising concerns; Some fear enemies will intercept data to target Americans" [ link to article ]
• Contactless News, 5/4/05, "Smart Card Alliance supports higher security levels for electronic passport" [ link to article ]
• Contactless News, 6/2/05, "U.S. market taking contactless smart card lead" [ link to article ]
• The Desert Sun, 5/30/05, "Credit cards getting easier to use" [ link to article ]
• Detroit Free Press, 5/25/05, "SUSAN TOMPOR: Wave-and-go credit cards allow instant, touchless transactions" [link not available]
• ePayments News, 5/31/05, "Smart Card Alliance: U.S. Market Leader for Secure Applications Using Contactless" [ link to article ]
• Federal Computer Week, 5/30/05, "Feds cram to meet ID deadlines," article on HSPD 12 [ link to article ]
• FindBiometrics.com, 5/14/05, "Smart Card Alliance Supports Higher Security Levels for Electronic Passport" [ link to article ]
• Government Computer News, 5/2/05, "State bolsters passport security" [link not available]
• Government Executive, 5/15/05, "Identity Crisis," article on the Real ID Act [ link to article ]
• Government Technology, 5/3/05, "Smart Card Alliance Supports Higher Security Levels for Electronic Passport" [ link to article ]
• Greensheet, 5/20/05, "Industry Update," article on mobile payments [ link to article ]
• Iowa City Press-Citizen, 5/25/05, "Wave-and-pay credit cards may make buying too easy" [link not available]
• KLAS Las Vegas - CBS, 5/21/05, "Latest Identity Theft Technology" [ link to article ]
• The Motley Fool, 6/8/05, "Credit Cards Getting Easier to Use" [ link to article ]
• MSNBC, 6/10/05, "Credit Cards Getting Easier to Use" [ link to article ]
• Muskogee Daily Phoenix & Times Democrat, 5/24/05, "Wave-and-pay credit cards may make buying too easy" [link not available]
• The Palm Beach Post, 5/23/05, "Credit card firms develop touch-free devices to boost transactions" [ link to article ]
• PC World, 5/31/05, "Coming Soon: National ID Cards?" [ link to article ]
• The Philadelphia Inquirer, 5/29/05, "Contactless credit card expected to be quick hit; Chase Bank, American Express are introducing the new technology to help folks spend money" [link not available]
• Railway Gazette International, 6/1/05, "Smarter ticketing," article on Transportation Council [link not available]
• The Record, 6/10/05, "Cards and chips" [ link to article ]
• SecureID News, 5/4/05, "Smart Card Alliance supports higher security levels for electronic passport" [ link to article ]
• Security Management, 5/1/05, "Impeccable credentials (Tech Talk)," article on HSPD 12 [ link to article ]
• Security Management, 5/1/05, U.S. Food and Drug Administration (BUSINESS NEWS), article on contactless technology [link not available]
• SecurityInfoWatch, 6/1/05, "U.S. Market Emerges as Leader for Contactless Smart Card Technology" [ link to article ]
• SecurityInfoWatch, 6/1/05, "What FIPS Means for the Security Industry" [ link to article ]
• The Springfield News Leader, 5/24/05, "Contactless cards make charging easier" [ link to article ]
• The Times Argus, 5/16/05, "Quick credit card coming," article on contactless payment [ link to article ]
• USA Today, 5/24/05, "Wave-and-pay credit cards may make buying too easy" [ link to article ]
• Warren's Washington Internet Daily, 5/4/05, "Security brief," article on epassport [link not available]
• Washington Technology, 5/5/05, "State considers more passport protections" [ link to article ]
• Washington Technology, 5/23/05, "The news in brief," article on epassport [ link to article ]
• Washington Technology, 6/6/05, "Too easy to identify," article on epassport [ link to article ]

Web Site News

NEW additions to the Smart Card Alliance web site

• New briefing documents - "Contactless Smart Chip Technology: The Business Benefits," and "Contactless Smart Chip Technology:   Providing Strong Support for Security and Privacy"
• "Contactless Payments: Delivering Merchant and Consumer Benefits" - now available at no charge
• Password-protected members-only page for the Physical Access Council
• Mobile Payments at the Physical POS report
• Physical Access Council and Transportation Council information

May 2005 web statistics

•  53,038 visitor sessions for the month
•  1,711 visitor sessions per day
•  96,213 total page views for the month
•  20,693 Industry News items viewed
•  2,261 Card Reader Catalog items displayed

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 .

Copyright 2004-2005 · Smart Card Alliance · 191 Clarksville Rd. · Princeton Junction, NJ 08550
Phone: (800) 556-6828 info@smartcardalliance.org · www.smartcardalliance.org