Smart Card Alliance Smart Card Talk
October 2007 • Volume 12 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 (cmedich@smartcardalliance.org).  

Transportation Council

  • The Transportation Council is working on a white paper that will provide an overview of an approach for transit/financial payment convergence that leverages conventional co-branding affinity card business models and the multi-application capabilities provided by smart card technology.  Please contact Cathy Medich (cmedich@smartcardalliance.org) if you'd like to participate in this project.
  • The Council is working on a second white paper on serving the unbanked and underbanked.  This white paper will provide an educational overview of the various methods available for providing and re-loading fare media to people who do not have credit or debit cards, nor checking or savings accounts, and generally lack relationships with traditional banking institutions.  Please contact Cathy Medich (cmedich@smartcardalliance.org) if you'd like to participate in this projects.
  • If you are interested in participating in the Transportation Council, please contact the Council chair, Paul Korczak (paul.korczak@nyct.com), vice chairs, Craig Roberts (croberts@uta.cog.ut.us) and Ian Newberg (inewberg@moorestown.parkeon.com), or Cathy Medich (cmedich@smartcardalliance.org). 

Physical Access Council

  • The Physical Access and Identity Councils submitted industry comments on the draft FIPS 140-3 specification to NIST.  We had excellent participation in this project from both councils; members involved in writing, reviewing, and editing included: CoreStreet, Hirsch Electronics, IDTP, Infineon, Infogard, Innovative Card Technologies, Integrated Engineering, MDI Security, Northrop Grumman, NXP, Oberthur Card Systems, StepNexus, Tennessee Valley Authority, Thales e-Security, Tyco, U.S. Dept. of Defense/Defense Manpower Data Center, U.S. Dept. of State.
  • The new white paper, Physical Access Control System Migration Options for Using FIPS 201-1 Compliant Credentials, is available on the Smart Card Alliance web site.  This white paper was developed in collaboration with the Open Security Exchange (OSE), Security Industry Association (SIA) and International Biometric Industry Association (IBIA).  It directly addresses the challenges unique to PACS when transitioning to FIPS 201-1 compliant credentials (the Personal Identity Verification card, known as the PIV card) and describes key elements of a typical PACS, identifies migration considerations relative to each, and outlines different migration options and their benefits and challenges. The white paper also discusses options for integration, PACS enrollment and registration, and biometrics. 
  • If you are interested in participating in the Physical Access Council, please contact Council chair, Roger Roehr (rroehr@tycoint.com), vice chair Bob Merkert (rmerkert@scmmicro.com), secretary Lolie Kull (lolie.kull@eds.com) or Cathy Medich (cmedich@smartcardalliance.org).  

Healthcare Council

  • The Healthcare Council is currently defining a series of outreach activities including: participation in healthcare industry events in 2008, media placements of consumer-oriented stories, definition of an industry stakeholder advisory group, and addition of healthcare content on the Alliance web site.  If you are interested in participating in the Healthcare Council, please contact Cathy Medich (cmedich@smartcardalliance.org). 

Contactless Payments Council

  • The Contactless Payments Council is setting up four new work groups to define and work on next activities.  Work groups are: merchant business case, consumer education and awareness, security and mobile payments.
  • The new white paper, Proximity Mobile Payments: Leveraging NFC and the Contactless Financial Payments Infrastructure, is available on the Smart Card Alliance web site.  This white paper was developed to describe opportunities for proximity mobile payments using NFC-enabled mobile phones and devices and the contactless financial payments infrastructure. It describes what is necessary to implement and deploy proximity mobile payment systems, discusses the relevant technical and business issues from the perspective of the various stakeholders (e.g., mobile operators, the financial industry, end-users, providers and vendors), and outlines the potential opportunities and barriers that may impact its market adoption.
  • If you are interested in participating in the Contactless Payments Council, please contact the Council co-chairs, Sunil Dewan (sunil.dewan@firstdata.com), Mohammad Khan (khanm@vivotech.com), or Charles Walton (cwalton@insidefr.com), or Cathy Medich (cmedich@smartcardalliance.org). 

Identity Council

  • The Council published a new white paper, The Consequences to Citizen Privacy and National Security in Adopting RFID Technology for Border Crossing Identity Documents.  The Identity Council developed this white paper to discuss the security, privacy and operational issues with using RFID in human identification systems. The paper provides an overview of the use of RFID for supply chain applications, describes how RFID is proposed to be used in the DHS border crossing programs, identifies key vulnerabilities with RFID systems that could be exploited, and proposes an alternative secure smart card-based solution for these border crossing identity programs.
  • The Council is working on the statements of work for two new white papers on online identity authentication -- one focusing on using the PIV card as the model for enterprise access control systems and one focusing on improving trust in Internet identities.  Please contact Cathy Medich (cmedich@smartcardalliance.org) if you'd like to participate in either of these projects.
  • If you are interested in participating in the Identity Council, please contact the Council officers, Neville Pattinson (Neville.pattinson@gemalto.com), Steve Howard (showard@thalesesec.com) or Tres Wiley (treswiley@ti.com), or Cathy Medich (cmedich@smartcardalliance.org). 

Other Councils

  • 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 (cmedich@smartcardalliance.org). 
  • If you are interested in forming or participating in an Alliance council, contact Cathy Medich (cmedich@smartcardalliance.org).  Click here to download a description of the council structure, proposal process and council interest feedback form. 

New Members

Bank of America, Wilmington, DE  www.bankofamerica.com
Membership Level: Leadership Council
Contact: John Suchanec, Senior Vice President
Description: One of the largest financial institutions in the world with more than 5,700 retail banking offices

CybrCollect, Inc., La Crosse, WI  www.getmychecks.com
Membership Level: Associate
Contact: Kathy Monroe, CEO
Description: Consulting services for payment processing and electronic collection provider

Imadgen, LLC., Bethesda, MD  www.imadgen.com
Membership Level: Associate
Contact: Liz Wenchel, Senior Associate
Description: Consulting and integration services to government and industry for identity management

Xtec, Inc., Reston, VA  www.xtec.com
Membership Level: General
Contact: Kevin Kozlowski, VP of Government Initiatives
Description:  Biometric security systems and authentication for government

Computer Sciences Corporation, Austin, TX  www.csc.com/cards
Membership Level: General
Contact: David Kruzich, Sr. Product Manager
Description:  Global information technology (IT) services company, financial services sector

Web Site News

Updated  web content

September 2007 web statistics

  • 71,189 visitor sessions for the month
  • 2,372 visitor sessions per day
  • 489,843 total page views for the month
  • 70,368 Industry News items viewed
  • 4,052 Card Reader Catalog items displayed
  • 7,728 PDF downloads
  • 37,364 Product and Service Directory page views

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 articles.

October 2007

 

September 2007

 

 

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 1-954-642-8969 or ebetts@smartcardalliance.org. Memberships are available for Leadership Council, General, Government, and Associate levels.

In May, 2007 the Smart Card Alliance held the first smart card business conference and exhibition in Mexico City. The two day event, developed jointly with the GlobalPlatform organization featured drew more than 200 attendees and featured industry experts from across the Latin American region representing the government ID and security markets and the bank card and mobile payments markets. The event was the first of many future educational and business networking events planned to unite the suppliers and issuers of smart card technology together under the guidance of the Smart Card Alliance Latin American Chapter.

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:

Below is a summary of the important Latin America Chapter programs and industry activities planned for 2007.

  • NEW Website. The Smart Card Alliance Latin America (SCALA) website has been redesigned with all new content. The new web site URL is http://latinamerica.smartcardalliance.org; or you can select “Latin America Chapter” from the Smart Card Alliance home page.
  • White Paper translation. The Smart Card Alliance Latin America (SCALA) has translated five white papers into Spanish and Portuguese to allow the local markets to have access to valuable information in their language. The selection of the white paper to be translated was important in order to be significant to the local markets of Latin America. This action helps the Alliance create an image of not only a U.S. focused institution, but an international and local.
  • Online Educational Program. The Smart Card Alliance Latin America (SCALA) in its efforts to expand its website deliverables to the market it has agreed to host a member online educational program. The program contains information about smart cards in both Spanish and English, covering from basic to some advanced knowledge.
  • Educational Institute – Certification Course. The Smart Card Alliance Latin America (SCALA) Physical Access Council has worked on developing an Educational Institute (E.I.) course that will be used at Expo Seguridad Mexico conference in April 2007 on the use of smart cards for physical access. This course will be a classroom style course provided to the attendees of Expo Seguridad Mexico in the security market. It is intended to be a follow-up course to the physical access course that is provided by The Latin American Security Association (ALAS) at their conference events.
  • Educational/Promotional Video. The Smart Card Alliance Latin America (SCALA) has held meetings with The Latin American Security Association (ALAS) and Obraweb to create online videos for the SCALA website. The idea would be to film one of SCALA’s Educational Institutes (E.I.) in high quality video to provide industry information and promote attendance to the Alliance.
  • Member invitation. The Smart Card Alliance Latin America (SCALA) with the leadership of the Transportation Council has developed a list of organizations in the transportation industry to send a formal invitation to join the Alliance and the transportation council. Due to the limited response of organizations in the region to join the Alliance and participate, the leadership of this council has agreed to use the contacts that the Alliance has acquired and invite them behalf of the transportation council to join our organization.
  • Articles for targeted industry magazines. The Alliance Latin America, Media Outreach Council has established several meeting in Brazil with other participating member organizations to organize the direction and responsibility of the council. As the council achieved it organizational logistics it began developing articles for publishing at identified magazines on behalf of the Alliance.

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.

 

 


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