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November 2006 • Volume 11 Number 11
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Member Profile:L-1 Profile
This month, Smart Card Talk spoke with Jim Ebzery, President of Viisage, the Secure Credentialing Division of L-1 Identity Solutions. Mr. Ebzery brings more than 20 years of senior management experience to his position, most recently serving as Senior Vice President of Customer Solutions for Viisage. Prior to Viisage, he was Vice President of Operations for Internet Capital Group (ICG), where he provided operational leadership, focused on delivering top-line growth, to a diverse portfolio of venture backed companies. Prior to ICG, Mr. Ebzery held senior sales and marketing positions at IBM Corporation over a 17-year span, finishing his IBM tenure as the Worldwide Solutions Executive for the IBM Supply Chain Software Business.magazine in 2005. 1. What are L-1 Identity Solutions’ main business profile and offerings? L-1 Identity Solutions was formed with the recently merger of Viisage and Identix. L-1 Identity Solutions was established based on the recognition and understanding that the security of a credential extends beyond the physical document and encompasses the entire identity life cycle. L-1 is comprised of business segments that include secure credentialing, biometrics and customer-focused services. Our depth of experience is in delivering secure credentialing solutions for State and local agencies as well as Federal customers. This, combined with our automated document authentication platform and automated testing solutions, round out the L-1 offerings. Other divisions within L-1 Identity Solutions are: Identix; SecuriMetrics; IBT; Iridian; and Spectal. Together we now offer the combined strength of secure credentialing solutions and a full line of biometrics technologies and products. Under the L-1 banner, we are now the largest and only company that offers end-to-end identity solutions as its core competency. For more information, visit htpp://www.L1ID.com. 2. What role does smart card technology play in supporting the L-1 business? L-1 supplies the U.S. Department of Defense Defense Manpower Data Center (DMDC) with smart card printing and personalization services which is an important part of our business. Smart card technology provides a link between secure credentialing and a biometric solution. L-1 combines these two technologies into working solutions, adding identity proofing, automated document authentication, enrollment, issuance and back-end identity management components. L-1 also supplies the printing and personalization service for the U.S. passport including the new e-passport. These solutions are provided through L-1's secure credentialing division, Viisage. 3. What trends do you see developing in the market that L-1 hopes to capitalize on? With biometric-enabled e-travel and/or identity documents becoming more pervasive (50+ countries in some stage of deployment), L-1 believes that an increasing number of countries (borders specifically) will rely more heavily on identity solutions which address a more document-centric approach that relies on the authentication of secure e-passports and a 1:1 matching of the document carrier to the document. In addition, based on the current established Logical Data Structure (LDS), as mandated by International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), all identity documents issued by EU members will have the same technology standards. This in turn allows countries to establish a “standard” identity platform which can be utilized by other applications -- e.g., driver licenses, national IDs, medical/health cards. This trend will drive the need for authentication products which can act as a portal for the execution of secure transactions (e.g., granting someone medical benefits). 4. What obstacles to growth do you see that must be overcome to capitalize on these opportunities? The emergence of smart card, e-passports, or e-identity cards can make many business processes more secure without impacting the speed by which the associated business process is executed. However, unless customers diligently verify the identity of any person being handed the before mentioned documents (which includes optical authentication of any breeder documents), issuance of e-enabled cards will only provide people with the wrong intentions a better and more secure document to execute their illegal activities. L-1 Identity Solutions is ideally positioned with our product line, being able to do both optical and electronic authentication of documents. And we are actively campaigning with smart card producers and product vendors to raise the level of awareness on the critical nature of optical authentication such that e-enabled documents can be trusted 100%. 5. What do you see are the key factors driving smart card technology in the market? There are two major market factors that we see as the foundation of moving the smart card market forward. One is the acceptance of smart cards within major federal and state identity programs, and the innovation of new uses that the federal and state governments promote to citizens and users. The Homeland Security Presidential Directive 12 (HSPD-12) and Transportation Worker Identity Credential (TWIC) programs are examples of this. Secondly, the same acceptance and promotion of smart cards as a tool for commercial use in preventing identity fraud and expanding the usefulness of secure identity credentials in the commercial space are also key factors in driving adoption of smart card technology. 6. How do you see your involvement in the Alliance and Identity Council helping L-1 Identity Solutions become successful? The Alliance brings together companies with compatible motivations looking to grow the industry at a time when collaboration of ideas and solutions in this market are creating a catalyzing effect that helps grow the market opportunities for all Alliance members. Being involved in the sharing of ideas and the partnering of complimentary solutions involving smart cards, identity and security has been a benefit to L-1. Our participation as a co-chair during the founding of the Smart Card Alliance Identity Council grew out of our belief in the Alliance and our understanding for the need to focus on identity as a unique topic and business opportunity within the smart card market. The Identity Council has given us a forum where we can listen and be heard and where our ideas can be tested and refined. Another key value that the Council brings to its members is the combined strength and authority of a unified industry message to government and business customers. 7. In your role as co-chair of the Smart Card Alliance Identity Council, what do you see are primary goals for the Council for the next year? The Identity Council will continue to voice opinions that support the smart card industry, but more importantly, will voice those opinions in a way that fosters a balanced debate on the best way to use technology to benefit society and bring value to business regarding the use of identity information and deployment of identity solutions. The Council will strive to add value to future smart card solutions and bring the concerns for privacy and security of systems that handle sensitive identity information to the public forum. This outreach is crucial in developing long term market demand for these solutions. Without the belief that these identity systems are secure, private, cost-effective and beneficial, there will be little demand for them. 8. Are there any other measures that you believe the smart card industry should take to improve the security of the identity verification process? Providers of smart cards and related products could establish some form of identity certification or quality assurance program such that any card produced under the conditions of this program would have a (visual) indicator that such document had passed the certification or quality assurance requirements. Any company who has a high commitment towards ensuring the chain of custody between any breeder document and a highly secured e-document could use this as a (commercial) differentiator towards its customer base (besides the obvious, that verifying breeder documents is the responsible thing to do). How “smart” is your smart card or e-document without optical authentication of personal ID credentials before issuance of such “smart”card…?
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