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Executive Director's Letter
 Dear members and friends of the Alliance,
For those readers who attended the 2006 Annual Conference earlier this month in San Diego, CA, some of the following will be repetitious, but for the broad audience of this newsletter (which now totals nearly 5,500 readers) this is a much anticipated report of what took place at the event. The post-conference survey reviews have come in from the conference attendees and, by all accounts, the Alliance conference met and exceeded all expectations. Many of the comments were very complimentary of the venue, conference agenda, and the quality of the speakers and topics. Many thanks to all of the presenters and panelists for participating and for speaking so enthusiastically about their subjects. I'd like to particularly thank those who shared their real world experiences as smart card users and issuers from their perspectives as government agency, financial issuer, transit systems operator, healthcare provider, or enterprise security provider. We may have saved the best for last (not deliberately, but due to scheduling problems) by enjoying a rousing luncheon keynote address on the final day from James Woolsey, former Director of the CIA and current vice president and officer at Booz, Allen, Hamilton. Mr. Woolsey gave a captivating overview of the world political forces behind today's global terrorism threats.
One of the things I look forward to at this time of the year is awarding the Smart Card Alliance annual OSCA Awards. In San Diego, I had the privilege to do so again for 2006. The Outstanding Smart Card Achievement Awards went to the Department of State, Bureau of Consular Affairs, Passport Services for being the outstanding issuing organization and Gemalto for being the outstanding supplier organization. Neville Pattinson, Director of Marketing and Government Affairs at Gemalto and a newly elected board member for the Smart Card Alliance, was selected for the industry's outstanding individual leadership award. Neville has been a tireless spokesperson and advocate for secure and privacy-sensitive adoption of smart cards in the federal government and currently co-chairs the Alliance Identity Council. All of this year's nominees for each category were winners and deserved recognition for their efforts to increase the awareness and adoption of smart cards in North America. The call for nominations for 2007 will be announced in August via email, web site, and in the Smart Card Talk newsletter.
The Emerging Technology and Innovation Showcase was a new addition for this year's conference and proved to be very popular. The showcase was held during the Wednesday evening cocktail reception and gave individuals a chance to vote on their favorite new technology innovation from the thirteen companies who applied for and were accepted into the showcase. To be considered for the showcase, the smart card technology the company offered had to be new or soon to be available on the market. The two 'Best of Showcase' winners voted on by the conference attendees were CoreStreet and its PIVMAN handheld authentication software solution, and Giesecke & Devrient for its NFC personalization service.
So with the Annual Conference behind us, we start looking forward again for what is next on the horizon for the Smart Card Alliance and our industry. One big item on the horizon that needs all of our attention is the Western Hemisphere Traveler Initiative (WHTI). We had a first-hand update on this program from Frank Moss of the Department of State, Bureau of Consular Affairs, in his presentation at the conference. Mr. Moss discussed that his agency has been directed by the Department of Homeland Security, which is charged with architecting the new WHTI credential (now called the passport card), to use long range RFID vicinity technology rather than the same contactless smart card technology State Department currently uses for electronic passports. The technology proposed by DHS is based on the EPCglobal EPC Gen 2 RFID specification for item level tracking that was recently adopted by the International Standards Organization as ISO 18000-6, Type C. I expect that privacy advocates are going to have a few things to say about using an RFID technology that has no built-in security capabilities and that produces a radio signal that can be read from up to 30 feet away. The passport card RFID chip will not hold any personal cardholder information, but will carry a cardholder unique numerical identifier which can only be silenced by keeping the card inside a protective shielded sleeve. Cardholders will need to remove the sleeve only when directed to at a land or sea border crossing. The public comment period for the Federal Register notice began last week and will continue until December 18th. The Smart Card Alliance and the Identity Council have issued a press release pointing out the many security and privacy concerns raised by this decision. We will soon be publishing our response to the notice. All concerned industry leaders can have their opinions heard by posting their comments on the Federal Register public comment web at http://www.regulations.gov/index.cfm. Using long range RFID technology is a major step backwards for government-issued identity documents and a major divergence from the federal government's strong track record of working closely with the smart card industry in the design and implementation of secure, privacy-sensitive identity credentials. Despite appeals from industry leaders, DHS officials chose not to meet with smart card industry or possibly delay a decision so that side-by-side tests could be conducted to prove the DHS claims that the technology was safe and more efficient than ISO14443 contactless smart cards and readers currently being installed at border crossings for electronic passports. We need every voice of our organization and our industry to be raised on this issue.
In conclusion, look for the upcoming announcement of the launch of the new Smart Card Alliance web site. The new site will go live in early November and will contain many new features and navigation tools that will improve the user experience and make it easier to locate content. New postings from the industry councils as well as the many existing reports and papers for the different vertical markets and technology implementations that we have previously addressed will be only a few clicks away. Also, previous issues of Smart Card Talk will be easily accessible from the quick links section of the home page.
Until next month, good luck and be well.
Randy Vanderhoof, Executive Director
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