Smart Card Talk

October 2006 • Volume 11 Number 10

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 Transportation Council published the new white paper, "Transit and Contactless Financial Payments: New Opportunities for Collaboration and Convergence." This white paper was developed to discuss how the new financial and transit industry directions could impact transit industry fare payment. Contributing members included: ACS, American Express Company, American Public Transportation Association, ASK Contactless, Booz Allen Hamilton, Cubic, ERG Group, First Data Corporation, Gemalto, Giesecke & Devrient, Inside Contactless, MasterCard Worldwide, Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority, MTA New York City Transit, PepperCoin, Tri-County Metropolitan Transportation District of Oregon (TriMet), U.S. Department of Transportation/Volpe Center, Utah Transit Authority, Visa USA, Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority.
The white paper is available for download from the Smart Card Alliance web site
If you are interested in participating in the Transportation Council, please contact the Council chair, Paul Korczak ( pakorcz@nyct.com), vice chairs, Chris Cipperly (ccipperly@wmata.com) and David deKozan (david.dekozan@cubic.com), or Cathy Medich.

Physical Access Council

The Physical Access Council published the new white paper, "Considerations for the Migration of Existing Physical Access Control Systems to Achieve FIPS 201 Compatibility." The white paper is designed to assist government agencies with the first phases of PACS migration to provide support for the new PIV cards that are being issued. Contributing members included: Actcom Security Solutions, a Diebold Company; BearingPoint; Booz Allen Hamilton; CoreStreet; Fargo Electronics; HID Corporation; Hirsch Electronics; Honeywell; Identification Technology Partners; Integrated Engineering; LEGIC Identsystems; LENEL, a UTC Fire & Security Company; Northrop Grumman; Saflink; SCM Microsystems; U.S. Department of Defense/Defense Manpower Data Center; U.S. Department of State.

The white paper is available for download from the Smart Card Alliance web site
The Council is now working on a project to define best practices for using the contactless interface for physical access. A draft paper has been circulated for review.
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 is developing the statement of work and outline for a new white paper that describes the benefits of smart cards for all healthcare stakeholders - patients, providers and payors.
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

During the in-person meeting at the Alliance Annual Conference, the Brand/Mark Work Group reported the results of 3 retailer interviews. Next step is to develop a letter to EMVCO requesting licensing terms for the "wave" technology mark.
The Merchant Roll-out Work Group has developed a draft merchant implementation guide that covers infrastructure requirements and best practices, training and education, and marketing planning and execution. Plan is to publish this guide in late October/early November.
The Issuer Work Group has developed a briefing document to educate issuers on the benefits of contactless payments and on key considerations for issuers who would like to issue contactless devices. The group plans to hold a web seminar, with issuers as the target audience, later this year.
The Terminal Certification Work Group is seeking acquirers and processors to join the group to work on identified issues.
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 is developing messaging and response to the Department of Homeland Security decision to use UHF RFID tags for the Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative Passport Card.
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

We had excellent participation in the in-person council meetings at the Alliance Annual Conference. Material covered during the meetings and updated council contact lists are available from the members-only council web site at http://www.sca-councils.org
We have great results in distributing council- and task force-developed reports from the Smart Card Alliance web site. During the period from May to September 2006, over 90,000 reports were accessed and downloaded!
A Board and cross-council member team has been working on materials to position contactless smart cards vs. RFID tags. The team has developed a series of graphics, tables and FAQ which are now being reviewed; new content is expected to be posted to the Alliance web site in November.
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

2FA Technology, Houston TX www.2FA.com
Membership Level: General
Member Contact: Greg Salyards, Vice President
Company Description: Supplies next generation solutions from strong authentication credentialing management

Secure Services Corp, Elmhurst, IL
Membership Level: General Member
Member Contact: Lester Keeper, Jr. Chairman & CEO
Company Description: Created SHAPE, the Secure Healthcare and Privacy Environment based on a secure smart card token

Innovatier, Inc. Lakeland, FL www.innovatier.com
Membership Level: General
Member Contact: Paul Meyer
Company Description: manufacturer of advanced electronic cards and tags using batteries, displays, biometrics, and unique IDs

Web Site News

The Smart Card Alliance is now working on a new web site design that will bring a fresh look-and-feel, improved navigation, updated industry resources and more convenient member and non-member access to reports and resources. Stay tuned for the launch of the new site in October!

New content includes:

Annual Conference presentations for attendee access
New Transportation Council white paper, "Transit and Contactless Financial Payments: New Opportunities for Collaboration and Convergence"
New Physical Access Council white paper, " Considerations for the Migration of Existing Physical Access Control Systems to Achieve FIPS 201 Compatibility"

September 2006 web statistics

76,609 visitor sessions for the month
2,553 visitor sessions per day
217,352 total page views for the month
71,410 Industry News items viewed
7,946 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.

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 article

Card Technology, 10/6/06, ''Smart Cards Lose Out On US Border-Crossing Project l ink to article]
Card Technology, 10/5/06, ''Anti-RFID Bill Killed In California, But May Rise Again link to article]
Card Technology, 10/5/06, ''Microsoft’s New Version Of Windows Adds Smart Card-Friendly Features '' link to article]
Card Technology, 10/5/06, ''Transit Officials Give Passing Grade To NY PayPass Pilot '' [link to article ]
Card Technology, 10/5/06, ''London Transit Seeks Ways To Work With Issuers'' [link to article]
Card Technology, 10/4/06, ''U.S. State Department Wins Industry Award '' [link to article]
Card Technology, 10/4/06, Brazilian Bank Plans High-Tech Debit Card [link to article]
Card Technology, 10/1/06, ''Opportunity Knocks. Who Will Answer? Making smart cards work with existing systems represents the biggest challenge today '' [link not available]
CardLine, 10/10/06, ''Trade Group Reviews Contactless Transit Payments''[link not available]
CardLine, 10/6/06, "Contactless a Winner with Early Adopters" [link not available ]
ComputerWorld, 9/21/06, ''Storm building over RFID-enabled passports'' [link to article]
Contactless News, 10/9/06, ''Contactless payments a hit with consumers, according to new survey ''[link to article]
Contactless News, 9/25/06, "Identity’s biggest guns form Secure ID Coalition to lobby for smart cards"[link to article]
CR80 News, 9/25/06, "Identity’s biggest guns form Secure ID Coalition to lobby for smart cards " [link to article]
Government Computer News,9/14/06, "RFID technologies duke it out [link to article]
Government Computer News, 9/11/06, ''Contactless cards: Know your enemy (and your friends)'' [link to article]
Government Technology,10/4/06, ''Smart Card Alliance Presents Outstanding Smart Card Achievement Awards" [link to article]
Government Technology, 9/25/06, "Smart Card Alliance Report Helps Government Agencies Deploy New System" [link to article]
HappyNews.com, 10/3/06, ''Stylish High-Tech Wallets Thwart Wireless Identity Theft" [link to article]
ISO & Agent, 10/18/06, "Contactless Guide Coming for ISOs " [link not available]
Network World, 9/21/06, "Storm building over RFID-enabled passports" [link to article]
Paramus Post, 10/9/06, "Feds to flash new badges [link to article]
Safety Online, 9/14/06, ''Program Aims To Speed Physician Access To Insurance Coverage " [link to article]
San Diego Union Tribune, 9/29/06, "Feds to flash new badges | Uniform government ID cards ordered" [link to article]
SecureID News, 10/9/06, ''Contactless loses to RFID in PASS Card debate '' [link to article]
SecureID News, 9/26/06, ''Smart Card Alliance white paper gives government agencies tools to begin implementing FIPS 201 compatible access control systems " [link to article]
SecureID News, 9/25/06, "Identity’s biggest guns form Secure ID Coalition to lobby for smart cards" [link to article]
Security,9/1/06, ''ePassport, esecurity, eehprivacy " [link to article ]
SecureID News, 8/9/06, ''New legislation seeks to delay PASS Card launch as contactless versus RFID fight continues " [link to article]
Security, 10/9/06, "eConsumers in favour of contactless payments " [link to article]
UsingRFID, 8/8/06, ''Electronic passport cloned - big deal!''[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:

The SCALA Chapter held a face to face meeting and dinner during the 2006 Annual Conference recently in San Diego. The meeting was organized by Edgar Betts, Associate Director, SCALA and was attended by Mauricio Coehlo, ITI Brazil; Humberto De La Vega, HID Global, Alex Giakoumis, Atmel; Andre Martins. Rede Ponto Certo, and Gerald Hubbard, Datacard Group. Though this year’s conference did not have a Latin America theme like the one held last year in Miami we had a chance to meet during the event to discuss our plans for 2007. This turned out to be one of our most active meetings, highlighted by our discussions for our first SCALA conference event to be held in Mexico City in 2007. No date has been confirmed yet but early May looks like the likely time to hold this event. Other activates were discussed such as an exhibitor pavilion at CIAB Febraban, and the creation of our media outreach council.

As we all work on building the image and awareness of the Smart Card Alliance Latin America (SCALA) it is very important to provide a unified impartial voice of the industry. So it is our job as the Alliance members and representatives to reach out to our fellow industry leaders and get them involved in our activities. The Alliance Latin America members will become stronger if everyone works together and the smart card industry grows.

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.