Smart card industry awaits boost

Smart card technology vendors are betting that the passing of the US government's latest worker identification deadline on 27 October will help push use of their products further into the commercial sector and beyond.

The US government's Homeland Security Presidential Directive-12 mandate requires that all federal agencies distribute certified PIV (personal identity verification) smart cards to their employees.

As a result of the deadline that has forced organisations including the Department of Defense to distribute millions of new smart cards to workers, makers of related software and devices say that millions more of the IDs will be put into the hands of workers outside the government sector.

Thai Smartcard's smart purse is more than just a payment card, but, as its name suggests, a purse with everything from movie tickets, loyalty points, to building and car park payments and more.

Thai Smartcard GM for IT, Warrapot Hiranpiwong, explained how the system would soon be trialled within the CP conglomerate for everything from employee ID management to building and car park access, while he hoped for up to 300 more partners to join the system in the near future.

On a technical note, Warrapot said there was actually no technical standard yet for Visa cash and Visa wave (contactless) cards. He explained that it was mainly for marketing. "They will certify our systems, our back-end and our security."

StepNexus, the developer of the Multos smart card operating system, announced today that it has joined the GlobalPlatform standards group, in another step toward integrating Multos with a widely-used smart card technology that has been largely associated with Multos's main rival, Java Card, reports Card Technology.

As part of the agreement, GlobalPlatform members will be able to license, from StepNexus, a technology called STEP (Secure Trusted Environment Provisioning) that allows cards issuers to control applications and data on multifunction smart cards.

"With this move, GlobalPlatform will be supporting STEP and will be supporting Multos fully as a platform within GlobalPlatform," StepNexus CEO John Wood told Card Technology. He says STEP will be licensed on a non-discriminatory basis, meaning prices will be the same for issuers with similar implementations and volumes. He did not disclose the licensing fee.