Category: Featured Articles

Executive Director’s Letter – February 2010

February 2010 has been an active month on many fronts for the U.S. smart card industry. It has been so busy, we couldn’t stop long enough to get you the February monthly newsletter until early March! What has been so important to keep everyone busy? The answer is summed up in three letters – EMV….

Executive Director’s Letter – January 2010

In my December 2009 letter, I tried to summarize what I considered some of the major milestones and accomplishments from the past year based on predictions I made at the start of 2009. As promised, I will again look through my magic “rose-colored” lens into 2010–a year that is expected to be very active and…

Executive Director’s Letter – December 2009

December is always a good time to reflect on the events of the past year and to look at where we began and ended the year. To find some perspective, I pulled out my December 2008 newsletter interview to see how my predictions for 2009 turned out. This time last year we were dealing with…

Identity and Payments – November 2009

Let me begin with a sincere thank you to all of the people who attended our recently concluded 8th Annual Smart Cards in Government Conference in Washington, DC. Our government speakers did a fabulous job informing the industry about the progress they have made in moving the government market’s security and identity management objectives forward….

Authentication Methods for PACS

The U.S. Federal government is now issuing smart card-based electronic identity credentials–Personal Identity Verification (PIV) cards–to all Federal employees and contractors to be used to access physical and information technology (IT) resources. Applying these electronic identity credentials to a physical access control system (PACS) requires both technical infrastructure and guidance policies. To assist agencies in…

Highlights from 2008 Smart Cards in Government Conference

The 7th Annual Smart Cards in Government Conference was abuzz with news about the many new and existing government programs deploying smart cards. The largest attendance on record for this conference and exhibition heard predictions for what will happen with the next administration and plans for state and local governments and enterprises to use the…