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May 2007 • Volume 12 Number 5
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Executive Director's Letter
In case you haven’t noticed, the Smart Card Alliance has been making a lot of announcements and has been in the news a great deal in the last few weeks. Some of these have been positive, industry-driving announcements about the Alliance and the market advances that are happening; other news items have been more controversial, and even confrontational in nature, which is not something we enjoy dealing with. Let's look at some of the positive forward-thinking news first. The biggest news, I think, was the announcement we made jointly with SourceMedia, producer of the CardTech SecurTech Conference and Exhibition, about our partnering agreement for the 2008 CardTech SecurTech Conference in Orlando, FL. Beginning in 2008, the Smart Card Alliance Annual Conference normally held in October each year will move to May and will be co-located with the CTST Conference. The Alliance will assume full responsibility for the CTST conference programming and training agenda and support SourceMedia in developing an expanded and improved conference and exhibition event. A specially-arranged member appreciation breakfast briefing was held at last week's 2007 CTST event in San Francisco to discuss the new partnership. Our members there learned first-hand from SourceMedia CTST representatives how much value they see in this partnership and how they feel that the partnership is long overdue. My strong belief is that entering into this agreement puts the Smart Card Alliance and its members on a much larger stage to positively influence the adoption of advanced card technology across the wide spectrum of vertical market users that attend the industry's largest event in North America each year. Moving the Annual Conference to the spring will require us to adjust the schedule for our other conference but, as a result, there will be two great events in 2008 instead of three - which should be welcome news for the many industry people who are suffering from "conference fatigue" from participating in the large number of events that are currently held. The second part of the "good news" story is the positive reception we received from our first international conference event, the Smart Cards for Government and Payment - Mexico Conference, which was held in Mexico City May 7-8 th . The event filled the room to capacity as we attracted smart card industry leaders from across the Latin American region for a two-day business update on the adoption of smart cards for government ID and payments. Our event partner, GlobalPlatform, was equally pleased by the enthusiastic welcome that our speakers, sponsors, and exhibitors received. Since we were on such a roll, we decided to squeeze in a free web seminar on May 3 rd on the subject of Contactless Payments: Issuers Meet Demand for Speed and Convenience, just before the Mexico City conference. The webinar featured a market overview presentation from IBM and presentations from issuing bank executives from Wells Fargo, KeyBank, and BB&T talking about contactless payments adoption from the issuer's perspective. Over 640 people registered and 302 dialed into this lively one-hour presentation that was hosted by SourceMedia. The event is available for replay for 6 months. We were so pleased with the results that we have scheduled another web seminar for July to talk about contactless payments from the merchant's perspective. In other news of a less feel-good nature, but still true to the Alliance 's mission to speak out when privacy and security are not being held in the highest standards possible, our Identity Council has found itself at odds with several high profile Federal government projects involving citizen identification credentials. These programs are taking shortcuts or cost-saving approaches using insecure technologies that are not consistent with other established government-issued credentials like the e-Passport, FIPS-201 compliant Federal employee ID cards, the TWIC card, the Registered Traveler card, and the First Responder cards - all programs based on secure smart card technology, with the latter three card programs directed by the same Department of Homeland Security. So, it is hard to make sense out of why DHS has taken a different position on the PASS card program, part of the Western Hemisphere Traveler Initiative, and the enhanced driver's license specification for REAL ID Act compliant state-issued licenses which will also serve as federally-recognized identity cards. These two DHS-led programs are being directed toward two less secure and potentially privacy-threatening technologies, long range RFID tags and 2D barcodes, respectively. In our public statements that have been addressed to DHS officials and the media, the Alliance has made a strong case for there being only one appropriate technology that meets the needs of security and privacy when it comes to human identification. That technology, currently part of personal identification document standards in the United States and in more that 30 Visa Waiver Program countries around the world, is smart card technology. Yet, for reasons that go beyond logic and science, DHS is taking a firm stand that they know best and the security industry and international identity management community is less informed than they when it comes to determining the most appropriate technology for large-scale citizen-facing identity card projects. The Alliance organization, along with other well-respected privacy and industry groups, is not going to let up on criticizing the approach taken without an opportunity to have a free and open dialog with the government executives in charge, and hopefully the our collective voices will be heard. Until next time, good luck, be well and enjoy the wonderful spring and summer season that is upon us. Randy Vanderhoof
Congratulations to the winners of the drawing from the 127 respondents to the online evaluation survey after the 6th Annual Smart Cards in Government Conference. Audrey Grayson, United Space Alliance; Michael Sulak, Department of State; Patrick Comiskey, ASSA ABLOY ITG; Charmaine Edward, Lockheed Martin; and John Metzger, Blue Ridge Networks will receive a Smart Card Alliance Logo’d Leather Computer Bag. John Metzger also won the bonus complimentary full conference pass to a future Smart Card Alliance event. Thank you to all who participated in the survey and for your valuable feedback on our conference.
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