Executive Director’s Letter

Dear members and friends of the Alliance,

The economic stimulus plan that President Obama signed earlier this month includes up to $19 billion to encourage the broader use of health information technology, such as electronic medical records and electronic prescriptions, providing incentive payments to doctors through Medicare and Medicaid. This represents a call to action for the Smart Card Alliance and for anyone else who is knowledgeable about how smart card technology can be used to protect personally identifiable information (PII) and secure access to electronic information that is stored and shared across insecure networks. Health records must be secured, whether they are at rest (such as in a health information Internet portal) or in motion (when moving between health services providers entrusted with this data).

Member Profile: SCM Americas – Interview with David Holmes

This month, Smart Card Talk spoke with David Holmes, Vice President & General Manager - SCM Americas. As Vice President and General Manager of SCM Americas, David Holmes is responsible for leading a team that is driving marketing, sales and business development efforts in North and South America, with particular focus on expanding SCM’s presence in new industries and geographic markets. In addition, he is responsible for establishing new sales channels and creating new partnerships to further the company’s sales expansion. Mr. Holmes utilizes his experience in the area of contactless smart cards and Near Field Communication (NFC) to play a crucial role in identifying new market directions for SCM.

Mr. Holmes joined SCM from NXP/Philips Semiconductors, where he led the Americas Marketing and Business Development team for all NFC, contact and contactless reader ICs, and the contactless services business, including key management and secure application delivery systems. Prior to this, Holmes served as the Intel Global Account Manager, providing worldwide account management for all NXP/Philips business with Intel Corporation.

Feature of the Month

Privacy, Identity, and the Use of RFID and RF-Enabled Smart Card Technology

State policy makers are looking carefully at the use of RFID technology in identity cards and the implications that holds for protecting privacy and personal information in identity applications and systems. This brief examines best practices for privacy-secure identity systems from the point of view of card technologies. It was prepared by the Identity Council of the Smart Card Alliance, a non-profit public/private partnership organization whose members include both government users and card technology providers.

What does protecting privacy and personal information mean?

First, protecting privacy and personal information means protecting individuals’ rights to control how personal information is collected, used, stored and passed on. Second, protecting privacy also includes information security–protecting the confidentiality, integrity and availability of personal information. To be considered privacy-secure, an identification system must be designed to satisfy both of these parameters.