Axalto U.S. Shipments of Cyberflex Access Smart ID Cards Surge

Axalto U.S. Shipments of Cyberflex Access Smart ID Cards Surge

Axalto customer purchases of Cyberflex Access™ smart cards in the United States surged significantly in the last two years. The rapid growth shows that the use of smart cards as secure identity credentials and employee badges is taking off in the United States. Some of the large government organizations that have adopted Axalto’s two-factor authentication include the U.S. Departments of Defense, Homeland Security and Interior as well as the General Services Administration (GSA). Among the many corporate clients are the Royal Dutch/Shell Group of Companies, Nissan Motor Co., Ltd., Dell Inc. and Sun Microsystems, Inc., whose Axalto smart card-based corporate badge was cited in a recent Wall Street Journal article as one of the top ten technologies companies are using to keep their mobile workers connected and productive.

Forrester Research, one of the IT industry’s leading research firms, sees high growth in this sector as a trend that is likely to continue. In “Market Trends 2004: Enterprise Single Sign-On,” analyst Steve Hunt reported that there is no doubt that smart cards will become the authentication token of choice in the future, in part because they offer multiple functions in a single, familiar and easy-to-use form factor.

Karthik Nagarajan, a research analyst from Frost & Sullivan, also expects continued market growth. “The processing capabilities and robust security of microprocessor smart cards make it an ideal medium for achieving strong authentication. At the same time, smart cards store large amounts of data and can run multiple applications. With these advantages we expect smart card use to grow in health care as well as in the government and IT sectors,” said Nagarajan.

In the United States, system integrators and partners have been critical to the product’s successes, including ActivCard, Inc., Atos Origin S.A, BearingPoint, Inc., Electronic Data Systems Corporation (EDS), HID Corporation, MAXIMUS, Inc., Northrop Grumman Information Technology, RSA Security Inc. and Schlumberger Information Services (SIS). These partners have used Cyberflex Access cards as a secure platform upon which to deliver solutions of many kinds, including corporate badge applications, email and document encryption, identity management software, secure remote access (VPN) and administration of personal passwords, logons and preferences.

Solutions created leveraging Cyberflex Access smart ids have involved technologies as diverse as digital certificates, biometrics, thin clients and directories. Many of the deployments have also incorporated Axalto’s DeXa.Badge™ Card Management System platform to manage identities and control access of employees to systems and facilities. An increasing number are using the e-gate™ product which is available in both smart card andtoken form factor. The e-gate USB token enables affordable smart card deployment across virtually any computer via the Universal Serial Bus (USB) port.

Many Internet service providers, banks and e-commerce site operators are already considering the use of such cards. “Inserting a microprocessor smart card like Axalto’s Cyberflex Access into the security chain is the only reliable way to proactively address problems introduced by spam, phishing, key logging programs, identity fraud and other difficult-to-stop attacks on ID/password security,” said Paul Beverly, president Axalto Americas. “Driven by more frequent attacks from hackers using more sophisticated viruses and spam techniques, online communities will increasingly turn to smart cards. Smart cards are the only authentication devices that can offer personalization, convenience, and portability, along with high security, standardization and a high degree of integration with PC and workstations.”

Axalto is working with other industry leaders to facilitate deployment of identity-based Web services and is an active member of the Liberty Alliance Project (http://www.projectliberty.org). This is an alliance of more than 150 companies, non-profit and government organizations committed to developing open standards for federated network identity and identity-based services.

Cyberflex Access is a family of microprocessor-based cryptographic smart cards that unites the pioneering Java Card™ technology of Axalto with the industry standard Open Platform architecture. The product is optimized for security applications and has an optional USB communications capability called e-gate™. More information about the products named in this release is available at http://www.axalto.com/infosec/index.asp.

About Axalto

Axalto (Euronext: NL0000400653 AXL) is the world’s leading provider of microprocessor cards (Gartner Dataquest 2004)–the key to digital networks–and a major supplier of point-of-sale terminals. Its 4500 employees come from 70 nationalities and serve customers in more than 100 countries, with worldwide sales reaching 3 billion smart cards to date. The company has 25 years’ experience in smart card innovation and leads its industry in security technology and open systems.

Axalto continuously creates new generations of products for use in a variety of applications in the telecommunications, finance, retail, transport, entertainment, healthcare, personal identification, information technology and public sector markets. Microprocessor cards provide convenience, security and privacy to public and private services operators, their customers and end users. For more information, visit us at http://www.axalto.com.