US requires smart passports
The US government will require nearly all of the passports it issues to have a computer chip containing the passport holder`s personal information by October next year, according to regulations published last week.
New Zealand`s Computerworld reports that starting early next year, the US Department of State will begin issuing passports with 64KB radio frequency identification (RFID) chips containing the name, nationality, gender, date of birth, place of birth, and digitised photograph of the passport holder.
The chip would match the data on the paper portion of the passport and improve passport security by making it more difficult for criminals to tamper with passports, backers say. The US government began looking at ways to make passports harder to forge in response to the terrorist attacks on the US on 11 September 2001.
Farmers to get cards
Thailand`s state-owned Bank for Agriculture and Agricultural Co-operatives (BAAC) plans to issue two million "Farmers Cards`` within three years, accounting for about 40% of the bank`s nationwide customer base, reports Bangkok Post.
Each card will be a smart card embedded with the latest chip technology and contain information such as a holder`s national ID number, his 30-baht health care registration code, his BAAC account number and data linked to other bank programmes.
Bank executives say holders will be have access to any number of BAAC and government development programmes just through a single card.
Contactless credit cards issued
Chase Bank is delivering contactless credit cards to more than two million people in New York City and surrounding areas, TechWeb reports.
The company announced the plan last week, saying the cards will be accepted at about 1 800 merchant locations in 481 cities and 11 counties in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut. At the same time, Chase said it would send another 900 000 of the cards to Philadelphia-area holders and another 1 200 businesses in New Jersey, Delaware and Pennsylvania will be able to read the contactless "blink" cards.
Chase announced that the new MasterCard and Visa cards would be accepted at stores where speed and convenience are important to consumers and they will contain magnetic stripes for use at stores lacking the technology to receive signals emitted by the cards.
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