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Publications – Enterprise ID

• Benefits of Smart Cards versus Magnetic Stripe Cards for Healthcare Applications.
  This brief was developed by the Smart Card Alliance Healthcare Council to describe the benefits of smart cards for healthcare applications and to provide a comparison with magnetic stripe cards. Download brief. View document.

• Boeing Profile
  This profile describes Boeing’s implementation of a smart-card-based employee identification card, called SecureBadge. Download profile. View all profiles.

• Contactless Smart Chip Technology: The Business Benefits
  This briefing provides an overview of why businesses are implementing contactless smart chip technology in broadly different environments and applications both within the United States and around the world. Download briefing. View full briefing.

• The Commercial Identity Verification (CIV) Credential–Leveraging FIPS 201 and the PIV Specifications
  This white paper was developed by the Smart Card Alliance Physical Access Council to provide guidance on how enterprises can take advantage of FIPS 201 and the PIV credential specifications to implement a standards-based commercial identity credentialing program. The white paper defines the Commercial Identity Verification (CIV) credential as a credential that uses the same technology and data model as the PIV-I credential. Download white paper. View executive summary.

• Complementary Smart Card Guidance for the WEDI Health Identification Card Implementation Guide
  Version 1.1 of the Workgroup for Electronic Data Interchange’s (WEDI) Health Identification Card Implementation Guide includes Integrated Circuit Cards (ICC), commonly known as smart cards, as an appropriate card type. For organizations considering upgrading their member identity cards to smart cards, this document serves as a supplement to the WEDI Health Identification Card Implementation Guide. It provides WEDI-compliant smart card designs and includes a discussion of the features and benefits of smart ID cards for healthcare providers and payers. Download white paper. View executive summary.

• Effective Healthcare Identity Management: A Necessary First Step for Improving U.S. Healthcare Information Systems.
  Government policy makers are looking carefully at the best ways to improve the efficiency of information systems in the healthcare industry. Much emphasis has been placed on the need for electronic health records for every American, and at ways to exchange those records at the regional, state and national levels. This brief was developed by the Smart Card Alliance Healthcare and Identity Councils to introduce the current problems with healthcare identity management, security and privacy, and propose leveraging existing federal standards and technologies already used in other government identity programs. Download brief. View document.

• Emergency Response Official Credentials: An Approach to Attain Trust in Credentials across Multiple Jurisdictions for Disaster Response and Recovery
  The Smart Card Alliance Identity Council and Physical Access Council developed this white paper to describe the benefits of using FIPS 201-based smart cards for ERO credentials and present credential use cases that support both emergency response and daily use. Download white paper. View full executive summary.

• Getting to Meaningful Use and Beyond: How Smart Card Technology Can Support Meaningful Use of Electronic Health Records
  “Meaningful use” has the top priority of today’s healthcare industry. In 2010, the government, healthcare organizations, consumers and technology providers came together to move toward interoperable electronic health records that can transform the healthcare industry. This white paper outlines the ways in which smart card-based systems can better position healthcare organizations and providers for meaningful use of electronic health records, while addressing many of the security and privacy challenges that come with electronic health records and health data exchange. Download white paper. View executive summary.

• A Healthcare CFO’s Guide to Smart Card Technology and Applications. (NEW)
  This white paper was developed for healthcare CFOs by the Smart Card Alliance Healthcare Council to outline the key benefits and business case for using smart cards for healthcare applications. The white paper outlines some of the major challenges faced by healthcare CFOs and discusses how smart card technology can provide innovative, practical and cost-effective solutions. Download white paper. View full executive summary.

• Healthcare Identity Management: The Foundation for a Secure and Trusted National Health Information Network.

  Policy makers are looking carefully at the best ways to improve our healthcare system with much emphasis being placed on the need for electronic health records for every American. This effort also includes creating an infrastructure to allow the exchange of these records at the regional, state and national levels. This paper introduces the current challenges and explains why identity management in healthcare is an essential and foundational element that must be made a priority by policy makers in order to achieve the goals of widespread use of electronic health records to support the secure and seamless exchange of healthcare information. The paper also recommends best practices for introducing a healthcare identity management infrastructure–one that provides the needed security and privacy controls that should be specified by policy makers. Download brief. View document.

• HIPAA Compliance and Smart Cards: Solutions to Privacy and Security Requirements
  This report discusses how smart cards can help health care providers and insurance companies meet the requirements of HIPAA Privacy and Security Rules. Designed as an educational overview for decision makers, it summarizes the HIPAA privacy and security requirements, provides an overview on how smart cards work, describes how smart cards can be used to support HIPAA compliance and implement other health care applications, and outlines key implementation success factors. The report includes profiles of several U.S. and international smart health card implementations. Download report. View full executive summary.

• Identity Management Systems, Smart Cards and Privacy
  This position paper describes key elements in the design of an identity management system that affect privacy and security and the benefits that smart cards bring to identity management systems. View document.

• Identity Management Systems, Smart Cards and Privacy: Frequently Asked Questions
  This FAQ answers questions about privacy, security and smart card benefits for identity management systems. Download FAQ. View full FAQ.

• Interoperable Identity Credentials for the Air Transport Industry
  This white paper was developed by the Smart Card Alliance Physical Access Council and Identity Council to provide the air transport industry with educational material on the use and applicability of interoperable identity credentials for use at airport facilities, and to propose a model for an interoperable identity credential that can leverage FIPS 201 and meet airport operational requirements. Download report. View full executive summary.

• Logical Access Security: The Role of Smart Cards in Strong Authentication
  This report describes the trends in implementing secure logical access. Written for decision makers in enterprises and government agencies, the report discusses current issues with logical access, reviews alternative approaches for authentication and presents key considerations that organizations should take into account when implementing stronger authentication for logical access. The benefits of using smart cards for logical access are presented, along with key business case factors that should be considered when deciding to invest in new technology for strong authentication. The report also describes the support provided for smart cards by the Microsoft Windows and Linux operating systems. Download report. View full executive summary.

• Microsoft Profile
  This profile describes Microsoft’s 2002 deployment of a smart card employee identity system that manages both physical access and remote logical access to company networks. Download profile. View all profiles.

• NSTIC Frequently Asked Questions
  This FAQ was developed by the Smart Card Alliance to answer questions about the National Strategy for Trusted Identities in Cyberspace (NSTIC). Download FAQ. View FAQ.

• Personal Identity Verification Interoperability (PIV-I) for Non-Federal Issuers: Trusted Identities for Citizens across States, Counties, Cities and Businesses. This white paper was developed by the Smart Card Alliance Physical Access Council and Identity Council to describe the benefits of FIPS 201, PIV standards and PIV-I framework for state and local governments to enable interoperability and trust across different government issuers for a wide variety of identity credentialing programs. The white paper discusses policy, process and technology considerations related to the implementation of state and local government identity credentialing initiatives. The white paper summarizes important aspects of the current state of policy, process and technology and identifies opportunities to support additional work to further improve each through the use of the PIV-I framework and the PIV standard. Download white paper. View executive summary.

• Privacy and Secure Identification Systems: The Role of Smart Cards as a Privacy-Enabling Technology
  This white paper defines privacy as the concept applies to an identification system and discusses how privacy considerations affect system design and implementation. It reviews how smart cards can provide a privacy-enabling technology for different ID systems, how they interact with other system components (e.g., smart card readers and host systems), and how smart cards can address the growing problem of identity theft. The paper recommends key guidelines for business practices and system designs that can help protect privacy. Download white paper. View full executive summary.

• Rabobank Profile
  This profile describes Rabobank’s deployment of PKI-based smart cards to employees for logical access. Download profile. View all profiles.

• RF-Enabled Applications and Technology: Comparing and Contrasting RFID and RF-Enabled Smart Cards
  This Smart Card Alliance white paper compares RFID technology and RF-enabled smart cards and describes key requirements in RF-enabled applications. Download white paper. View full executive summary.

• Secure Identification Systems: Building a Chain of Trust
  This report discusses the importance of a robust chain of trust for secure ID systems. Developed for decision makers, the report summarizes why today’s ID systems are vulnerable, what makes an identification system secure, and what factors need to be considered in developing a secure ID system’s chain of trust. It defines the components of a secure ID system and discusses key considerations for enrollment, issuance, usage and implementation. The report describes how a robust chain of trust can be implemented to authenticate an individual’s identity and ensure the validity of the ID and credential once the ID has been issued and is in use. It describes the role smart cards play in the chain of trust, discusses smart card implementation considerations, and summarizes how smart cards can help to address the key vulnerabilities of current ID systems. Download report. View full executive summary.

• Shell Group Profile
  This profile describes Shell Group’s deployment of PKI-based smart cards to employees for logical access. Download profile. View all profiles.

• Smart Cards and Biometrics
  This white paper was developed by the Smart Card Alliance Physical Access Council to describe the benefits of combining smart cards and biometrics to enable strong verification and authentication of an individual’s identity. The white paper provides an overview of biometrics technology, discusses how it’s used for identification and verification, and describes the benefits of using smart cards and biometrics to enable strong verification and authentication of the cardholder’s identity. The white paper includes eight case study examples of identity verification systems that combine smart cards and biometrics, including the Singapore Immigration Automated Clearance System, the Canadian Airport Restricted Area Identification Card, Amsterdam Schiphol Airport workforce ID card, the University of Arizona Keyless Access Security System, the FIPS 201 Personal Identity Verification (PIV) card, the U.S. Department of Defense Common Access Card (CAC), the U.S. Transportation Worker Identification Credential (TWIC), and the electronic passport. Download white paper. View summary.

• Smart Card Technology in Healthcare: Frequently Asked Questions.
  This frequently asked questions document was developed to answer questions about how smart cards work and how the technology is used to manage patient identity and protect a healthcare consumer’s personal information. Download FAQ. View FAQ.

• Smart Cards in U.S. Healthcare: Benefits for Patients, Providers and Payers
  This white paper was developed by the Smart Card Alliance Healthcare Council to describe the benefits of smart cards to healthcare industry participants. The paper describes the challenges within the healthcare industry and the clear opportunities for the use of smart card technology for security and privacy in healthcare. The paper examines smart card use in healthcare today and suggests additional applications for consideration. Download report. View full executive summary.

• Sun Microsystems JavaBadge Profile
  This profile describes Sun Microsystems’ deployment of smart card-based JavaBadge to employees. Download profile. View all profiles.

• The Top 10 Hot Identity Topics
  This white paper was developed by the Smart Card Alliance Identity Council to provide a high-level discussion of the top 10 challenges associated with current identity systems. This paper covers a range of topics and offers perspectives on how the most critical identity issues can be addressed with policy, process, and technology solutions. Download report. View full executive summary.

• Using FIPS 201 and the PIV Card for the Corporate Enterprise
  The Smart Card Alliance Identity Council and Physical Access Council developed this white paper to provide an overview of FIPS 201 for corporate enterprise executives and to describe the benefits of using FIPS 201 as the foundation for enterprise identity management programs. Download white paper. View full executive summary.

• Using Smart Cards for Secure Physical Access
  This report provides a primer for understanding physical access control systems that use a smart ID card for personal identification. Designed as an educational overview for decision makers and security planners, the report describes physical access system architecture and components, provides guidance on key implementation considerations, describes smart card technologies used for physical and logical access, discusses migration considerations in moving from legacy physical access systems to smart card-based systems and showcases other applications that can be combined with a smart card-based secure physical access system. Download report. View full executive summary.

• Wiegand Message Recommendations
  The Smart Card Alliance Physical Access Council developed this industry recommendation to respond to requests for sample Wiegand message formats that will handle the additional fields of the Federal Agency Smart Credential Number (FASC-N) for programs that use Credential Series fields and Individual Credential Issue to identify credential holders. In addition, the recommendation defines device status messages to log field device activity. Additional Wiegand formats are defined to support this enhanced messaging along with the extra fields of the FASC-N. Download document. View full executive summary.