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| Subject: SchlumbergerSema will initially provide 600,000 it'sCyberflex Access smart cards-part of | |
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Author: a contract awarded- EDS systems integrator-project 3/1/02 |
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Date Posted: Tuesday, February 11, 01:39:40pm In reply to: March 15th 2002 (previously 10%) 's message, "Re:ERG Group 100% acquired The Rijndael algorithm/sold-by/Safenet/U.S.Gov agencies& commands" on Sunday, February 09, 03:29:31am PERSONAL INFORMATIONThe Accidental Rise of Smart Cards. By Michael Parsons January 3, 2002 ------------------------------------------------------------ What is the disconnect between the United States and smart cards? It's baffling to the millions of Europeans who have their personal identity locked into these fingernail-size circuits in their cell phones. Yet in North America, the cards have failed to gain the widespread acceptance they have in Europe, despite all the vigorous hand-waving of analysts predicting the market will explode. ------------------------------------------------------------ The success of smart cards in Europe is almost accidental. It's taken decades for them to grow beyond their modest beginnings in the European telecommunications market to capture the crowd of corporate computing in the United States. There are signs that the technology is ready to make the big leap across the pond, as bankers, retailers, and federal government agencies have begun big projects that will put millions of smart cards into American pockets. ------------------------------------------------------------ With security awareness at an all-time high, there's potential for widespread use. Smart cards can hold much more information than magnetic-stripe cards, and crooks are less likely to get at the private data inside, which means the cards are well-suited for several applications, like debit cards, electronic keys for building access, and network security. This new growth potential has smart-card manufacturers, like Gemplus and SchlumbergerSema, eager to grow their businesses. Both companies say that following the terrorist attacks of September 11 each experienced significant increases in the number of inquiries from corporations and U.S. government agencies regarding security applications. Among the interested parties are several U.S. airlines, which are investigating smart cards as a way to improve airport security. ------------------------------------------------------------ NATIONAL INSECURITY ----------------------------------------------------------- But smart cards as personal forms of identification face big obstacles in the United States and the United Kingdom, as both countries' governments have firmly rejected proposals to adopt them as national ID cards. What's more, there's plenty of doubt that they could really be effective in deterring determined terrorists. There's also concern about the enormous cost and complexity of implementing these systems and the potential for the forging or stealing of a person's identity, not to mention the civil liberties abuses that such a program would raise, like discrimination brought about by knowledge of one's medical history. ----------------------------------------------------------- In other countries, like China, there are already plans to use smart cards as a national ID system. Western corporations that sell these systems are lining up to gather the windfall, even though the demand is likely to be filled by Chinese domestic suppliers. ------------------------------------------------------------ Despite the U.K. government's rejection of a national ID program, in November it announced plans to use smart cards to solve another painful political problem: keeping track of asylum seekers. And although the U.S. government may have ruled out a national ID card as well, last year the Department of Defense announced a contract with the systems integrator Electronic Data Systems to deliver a smart card for its personnel. We can expect to see an increasingly large patchwork quilt of government agencies and corporations using smart-card technology for security systems, while governments continue to shy away from endorsing politically dangerous ID projects. "You have this proprietary, European telco-driven technology, appealing to large 10 million-card systems, coming into smaller, more nimble, less-expensive systems for the corporation," says Charles Walton, CEO of Caradas, which provides smart card-based authentication systems. Royal Dutch/Shell has undertaken a massive employee badge program that will provide smart-card IDs for over 100,000 people. Many other corporations are likely to follow their lead. ----------------------------------------------------------- Across Asia and Europe, smart cards have become the de facto standard for personal identification, whether for retrieving money from a bank or paying for a parking meter. Malaysia, for example, is planning to convert its paper-based national ID cards to smart cards. In France, millions of citizens use smart cards every day when they bank. In Germany, 160 million health insurance cards have been issued as part of the national health care system. In Finland, they're being used in a national ID card project. And the European market for smart cards in security applications has only just begun to take shape. ------------------------------------------------------------ According to Thomas Raschke, an Internet security analyst at the research firm IDC, smart cards for security applications generated $100 million of revenue in Europe in 2000, and this is expected to grow at a rate of almost 50 percent over the next five years. Dataquest estimates that the present 2.5 million smart cards used to log in to corporate networks worldwide will grow to 92 million by 2004. A look at Europe's use of the technology makes these ambitious predictions seem more credible. Such a growth will greatly benefit two non-U.S. companies, Gemplus and SchlumbergerSema, which together own about 85 percent of the global market. ----------------------------------------------------------- TELEPROMPTED ----------------------------------------------------------- Smart-card technology grew out of the fertile connection between European governments and their incumbent telecommunications providers. The cards were first patented in France in 1974 by Roland Marino to replace old-fashioned door locks with electronic locks that could be opened with smart electronic keys; it may have sounded odd then, but now many of us work in offices that use such systems. Mr. Marino's invention came in handy to address a rather different issue: vandalized phone booths. France Telecom deployed stored-value phone cards to reduce incidents of phone break-ins and coin theft. ----------------------------------------------------------- The success of smart cards for phone-booth use positioned them nicely for the next wave of communication in wireless. The cards were used for subscriber information modules, or SIM cards, which identify telephone users on GSM wireless networks. This extremely successful European standard has created a huge market for telephony SIM cards, creating another high-volume, low-cost market for smart cards. Last year 600 million people worldwide were using GSM phones, according to the GSM Alliance, a lobbying group that promotes GSM technologies--that's a lot of smart cards. ----------------------------------------------------------- In the '80s, the French government drew up legislation to reduce credit card fraud, and mandated the use of smart cards on debit and credit cards to accomplish these goals. The U.K. government has also prepared legislation so that by 2004 British-based banks will have to adopt the technology. That's because research revealed that much of the money stolen by credit card fraud was used to fund additional criminal activities. U.S. financial institutions like American Express and Visa are beginning to understand and address this problem. They started deploying smart-card technology in the United States and have been pleased with the response from consumers. ----------------------------------------------------------- Retailers are also getting in on the act. Target stores in the United States are offering a combined customer loyalty card and credit card, using smart cards. It is also helping to eliminate fraud, and provide a way for financial-services providers and retailers to improve customer-retention rates. But consumers shouldn't expect the magnetic stripe on their credit cards to morph into a smart card overnight, largely because of the costly overhaul that retailers have to undergo to upgrade their equipment. ----------------------------------------------------------- The U.S. Department of Defense is also helping shape the adoption of smart cards in the United States. Its Common Access Card project, which will eventually issue more than 4.3 million cards to military and DoD personnel, is a significant endorsement of smart-card technology: after all, these are the same people who brought us the ARPAnet, the first version of the Internet. SchlumbergerSema will initially provide 600,000 of its Cyberflex Access smart cards as part of a contract awarded to EDS, the systems integrator for the project. If the plan succeeds, it will almost certainly smooth the way for other federal and state smart-card projects. ------------------------------------------------------------ The ability to integrate smart cards with Internet-based systems means that the cards will eventually be able to access information, preferences, and applications that are stored on a server, becoming the thinnest of all clients. Some companies really do believe that the smart card will be the ultimate in intimate computing. Alien Technology of Morgan Hill, California, is using a new manufacturing technology to develop small, flexible monochrome electronic displays--small enough to fit on a smart card--effectively allowing the user to interact with the data stored on the card directly, without needing to use an external reader. ----------------------------------------------------------- Write to Michael Parsons. ----------------------------------------------------------- [ Next Thread | Previous Thread | Next Message | Previous Message ] |
| Subject | Author | Date |
| DOD--license the company's BioEngine fingerprint-recognition technology-6/2/2003. | Identix/Datacard/ERG/Proton DOD have used since 1996 | Wednesday, February 12, 08:43:54am |
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