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Executive Director’s Letter
Dear members and friends of the Alliance,
The expression “the whole is greater than the sum of its parts” was evident this month in Salt Lake City at the 2011 Mobile & Transit Payments Summit. This mid-winter conference event always draws a modest, but very committed group of attendees who understand how open standard, contactless bank card payments draw energy from the transportation industry, and vice versa, creating a sum effect greater than the parts alone. I’ve heard attendees also like the beautiful snow-capped vistas and the world-class skiing that is less than 40 minutes away. It was not a big surprise that this year’s focus on mobile payments and transit was well received by our regular attendees, given the collective energy around mobile payments in the U.S. and European markets. Major announcements involving the arrival of NFC mobile devices and new commercial rollouts for banks, mobile operators, alternate payments providers and some merchants have definitely re-energized the “regulars.” But we also saw excellent turnout of new attendees to our conference, most of whom were first time attendees to a Smart Card Alliance conference. This resulted in our attendance growing by 50% from 2010, to a room-busting 362 people for the medium-sized Marriott Salt Lake City Center hotel. Those who attended from the mobile payments markets benefited greatly from the frank discussions and interactive panels led by the transit operators and integrators; and, likewise, the transit-oriented crowd learned a great deal about the mobile market, NFC mobile payments ecosystem, and mobile payments business model. As a result, the “whole” got a whole lot bigger. I wish to thank all of our speakers for providing a great educational program and our sponsors, exhibitors, and conference attendees for making this event a big success–and let’s keep the momentum going into May for the upcoming 2011 Annual Conference: Roadmap to EMV Payments and Secure ID, May 3-5, 2011 in Chicago.
SCALA Associate Director’s Letter
Dear Smart Card Alliance Latin America (SCALA) members and friends,
Our industry is unique in that we impact different vertical markets and allow organizations to become versatile in providing value-added solutions to solve real world problems. Our industry leaders must be creative in finding new applications for our technology and in developing partnerships and unity among organizations with few natural relationships. It is our nature to develop bridges, establish partnerships, and solidify relationships; we all have a strong sense of accomplishment when we meet these goals as a team.
Member Profile
This month Smart Card Talk spoke with Lars Suneborn, HIRSCH Electronics. During his 30+ year career in the security industry, Mr. Suneborn has served in a variety of roles. Currently he is guiding HIRSCH government customers with implementation of FIPS 201 compliant products and related system enhancements.
Recognized as a physical access control system (PACS) subject matter leader, he is a frequent speaker and an active member and chair of the Smart Card Alliance Physical Access Council. Mr. Suneborn is actively involved in industry groups developing open standards for smart card and related system components. He is actively promoting smart card, biometric and PKI cryptographic technologies as vital components in overall system designs for high-risk, high-security facilities nationally and internationally. He is guiding U.S. agencies in their efforts to achieve HSPD-12 and FIPS 201 PIV compliance.
His clients include U.S., British and Canadian government agencies. His experience includes system design, deployment and long-term sustainability programs for government facilities worldwide. Mr. Suneborn has developed and conducted agency-specific week-long training courses for a variety of U.S., Canadian and British security agencies.
Feature of the Month
Card Payments Roadmap in the United States: How Will EMV Impact the Future Payments Infrastructure?
The EMV specification defines technical requirements for bank cards with embedded microchips and for the accompanying point-of-sale (POS) infrastructure. With few exceptions (primarily in the United States), financial institutions worldwide issue EMV bank cards to businesses and consumers. Approximately 1 billion EMV cards have been issued globally and 15.4 million POS terminals accept EMV cards. [1] The primary purposes of including a chip in a bank card are to store cardholder data securely, protect data stored on the chip against unauthorized modification, and reduce the number of fraudulent transactions resulting from counterfeit, lost, and stolen cards.
This month’s article reviews the current state of the payments infrastructure in the U.S., provides a primer on EMV and card security, and discusses possible roadmap options for the U.S.
Upcoming CSCIP Training and Exam Dates
Visit /activities-leap for registration information.
| CSCIP Training & Exam Prep Course¹ |
CSCIP Exam | City, State, Country |
| May 2, 2011 (CSCIP only) |
May 5, 2011 | Chicago, IL (Smart Card Alliance Annual Conf) |
| June 2, 2011 (CSCIP/G only) |
June 3, 2011 | Gaithersburg, MD (Washington DC area) |
| June 13, 2011 (CSCIP only) |
June 15, 2011 | Niagara Falls, Ontario CANADA² (ACT Canada Cardware 2011) |
| June 22, 2011 (CSCIP only) |
June 23, 2011 | London, UNITED KINGDOM² |
| November 1, 2011 (CSCIP & CSCIP/G) |
November 4, 2011 | Washington, DC (Smart Cards in Government Conf) |
| November 14, 2011 (CSCIP only) |
November 16 or 17 | Paris, FRANCE² (Cartes & Identification 2011) |
| ¹ This full day course is held from 9:00am–4:30pm at a location to be named in the city, state listed above. The cost for attending this course is $475 ($380 for members). ² International CSCIP training and exam pricing varies from standard pricing. Please contact [email protected] for further details. |
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New CSCIP Accreditations
Congratulations to the LEAP members who have successfully completed the requirements for professional accreditation as Certified Smart Card Industry Professionals.
View the entire list of Certified Smart Card Industry Professionals.
| Name | Company | Certified Since |
| Peter Comps | LTK engineering Services | January 2011 |
| Julie Green | LTK engineering Services | January 2011 |
| Prakash Hariramani | Visa | February 2011 |
| Linh Huynh | Inside Secure | February 2011 |
| Stefan Negritoiu | Microsoft | February 2011 |
| Donncha O’Hegarty | Home Depot | February 2011 |