March 2017 Monthly Member Bulletin

• From the Executive Director
• Spotlight on Valid
• Council Highlights and Other Resources
• 2017 Payments Summit Registration
• Upcoming Training Sessions

 

Executive Director’s Corner

Welcoming the Future of Secure Technology

Over the past 17 years, the Smart Card Alliance became a leader by presiding over a multi-industry association that has worked to stimulate the understanding, adoption, use and widespread application of smart card technology for payments, mobile, identity and access security, transportation, and healthcare. In the decades before the organization was formed in 2000, there were a handful of uses of smart cards in the U.S. and a number of false starts that failed to sustain the market for cards and the related hardware and software that accompanied smart cards.

Our organization was known for propelling the adoption of smart card technology in the U.S. by organizing industry leaders to define how the existing technology from other global markets could meet U.S. market requirements and help them deliver solutions that became security standards for U.S. payments, identity, access and mobile security. Over time, the technology has continued to evolve for smart cards and other forms of embedded chip technology. On March 8, 2017, we officially announced a new name – the Secure Technology Alliance – to go along with an expanded charter to include a broader range of security and privacy-enhancing technologies. You can learn more by visiting www.securetechalliance.org.

We are proud of our past and excited about our expanded focus, which has already taken shape by our member’s support for the industry council addressing the Internet of Things market. We’re taking steps to expand and engage in activities across a broader spectrum of technology that’s being used in things such as wearables and Internet-connected devices.

I have a lot of personal and professional satisfaction having been part of the Smart Card Alliance for more than two decades. The success of the organization is due in large part to you, our members, and our supportive and engaged Board of Directors. I am excited and confident that our expansion and new Secure Technology Alliance focus will continue to offer you information, resources, best practices, education, networking and council activities that will be vital to your particular organization.

I hope you are planning to attend the 2017 Payments Summit in Orlando March 27-30. When we planned the event, and its subject, “Adapting to the Wave of Change,” we hadn’t yet begun the work necessary to undergo a name change. I’d like to think that the conference’s focus on adapting to change is a fitting representation of our mission going forward.

 

In the Spotlight

 

A 2016 Center of Excellence recipient, Valid is a Brazilian company with a global presence and production in Argentina, Spain and the U.S. Established in 1957, today it is the world’s fourth largest producer of financial cards. Below are thoughts from Alberto Hernandez, Global Chief Commercial Officer of Mobile, Payment, and Software & Solutions.

Please describe your company’s business profile and its offerings 

Valid has vast experience serving financial institutions and mobile operators with products and services associated to smart card technology. With a proven track record of supplying EMV technology and SIM cards in the Americas for many years, we have now expanded in recent years to having a presence in other regions of the world like Europe, Africa, Middle East, and Asia.

What role does smart card technology play in your business?

As a central point of our strategy, smart card technology is where Valid is investing a lot to improve on functionalities, roadmaps, etc. and always follow standardization committees to strengthen our industry.

What trends do you see developing in your market?

For the SIM card market we see the next wave of technology coming mainly due to the IoT major trend around the world, so solutions like eUICC (embedded SIM) are gaining a lot of momentum.  For EMV, we see an increase of adoption of smart card technology around the world with special focus in the USA, Africa, and Asia.

What must you overcome to leverage those trends?

Valid is investing in developing new technologies and services around the trends mentioned above, so we can facilitate customer adoption and improve their day to day life when using smart cards for a given purpose.

For more information, go to www.valid.com.

 

Council Highlights

• Payments Summit. The Mobile, Payments and Transportation Councils will hold in-person meetings at the 2017 Payments Summit to review projects in process and discuss new projects for 2017
• The Access Control Council submitted comments to GSA on the “Physical Access Control Systems (PACS) Functional Requirements and Test Cases (FRTC),” version 1.3.3. The Council is currently working on two projects: the development of a PACS deployment playbook for the GSA CIO; and comments on NIST Draft SP 800-63 (in collaboration with the Identity Council)
• The Health and Human Services Council is recruiting healthcare industry stakeholders for their new Client Advisory Board and is working on a healthcare 2.0 webinar presentation
• The Identity Council is collaborating with the Access Control Council to develop and submit comments on NIST Draft SP 800-63 Digital Identity Guidelines; comments are due by end of March 2017
• The Internet of Things (IoT) Security Council is developing material to recruit IoT industry stakeholders to participate in Council activities. The Council also co-hosted the Smart Cities Transportation Workshop with the Transportation Council in February
• The Mobile Council is completing the white paper on mobile identity authentication and continuing work on two additional white papers – mobile profiles and provisioning, and Trusted Execution Environment (TEE) 101
• The Payments Council will publish the blockchain and smart card technology later this month and is continuing work on the EMVCo Payment Account Reference (PAR) use cases white paper.
• The Transportation Council collaborated with the IoT Security Council to host a successful Smart Cities Transportation Workshop, on February 1-2, at Utah Transit Authority, in Salt Lake City, UT; presentations from the workshop are available on the Secure Technology Alliance members-only web site. The Council will be publishing the multimodal payments convergence white paper later this month and is developing a webinar on mobile ticketing and NFC for later in 2017.
• Council projects. A summary of all active Council projects is posted on the Secure Technology Alliance members-only site

If you would like to participate in a Secure Technology Alliance Council, please contact Mike Strock,[email protected].

 

New EMV Resources

• The U.S. Payments Forum published an update to the Optimizing Transaction Time at the POS white paper. The updated document includes an extensive appendix with frequently asked questions about implementing “Faster EMV” (Quick Chip and M/Chip Fast)
• The U.S. Payments Forum launched their new web site, which includes both organization information and all resources published by the Forum. The EMV Connection web site is now focused on providing an EMV information portal for the industry

 

Congratulations New Recipients

CSCIP/G Certification

• Kevin Campbell, Xtec
• Michael Casey, CertiPath
• Dan Currie, Department of National Defense
• Sok Bonn Duong, Xtec
• Francisco Yuan, National Defense Canada

CSCIP/P Certification

• Dipesh Paul, American Express – India Private Limited
• Anirban Roy, American Express
• Rohit Sinha, American Express
  

CSEIP Certification

• Todd Adams, Allegion*
• Dennis Anfield, Allegion*
• Patrick Grandpre, Allegion*
• Derek Hileman, Allegion*
• Frederick Holt, Allegion*
• Larry Kolb, Allegion*
• Terry Meier, Allegion*
• Douglas Talbott, Allegion*
• Ron Taylor, Allegion*
• Scott Tingley, Allegion*
• Donald Sawyer, US Navy CNSS-14*
• Patrick Lackey, Systems Applications & Solutions
• Marquis Laude, Integrated Security Solutions, Inc.
• Dan Morrisey, United Security & Communications
• Duwan Tate, National Science Foundation

*Denotes corporate exam. To make arrangements for a group of employees to take a corporate exam, please contact Lars Suneborn at [email protected]