PRINCETON JUNCTION, N.J., September 28, 2009–The Smart Card Alliance Identity Council will turn its attention to cybersecurity and healthcare identity in the upcoming year, the Council said today, while continuing its work to educate and make identity credentialing recommendations for corporate enterprise, healthcare, state and local governments, and more. The Identity Council also announced new officers and steering committee, and plans to attend the Smart Card Alliance 8th Annual Smart Cards in Government Conference in Washington, DC.

“With the Obama administration making cybersecurity a priority, and President Obama naming a cybersecurity czar any day, this is clearly an issue to which we will be paying close attention,” said new Identity Council chair Neville Pattinson, vice president of government affairs and standards at Gemalto. “As the administration builds a comprehensive national security strategy, we hope to help by educating on the use of technology to securely authenticate individuals on the Internet.”

This past year, the Identity Council collaborated with the Smart Card Alliance Healthcare Council on a number of projects, including a National Press Club briefing in Washington, DC, last May. The purpose of the briefing was to raise awareness of the importance of privacy, access and identity in the Obama administration’s effort to modernize the nation’s healthcare information infrastructure. The two Councils also collaborated on the brief, ”Effective Healthcare Identity Management: A Necessary First Step for Improving U.S. Healthcare Information Systems–A Smart Card Alliance Brief for Government Policy Makers and Other Stakeholders.”

“With healthcare IT getting nearly a $19 billion boost from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, these efforts by our Identity Council and Healthcare Council are evidence of our members’ willingness to jump in and address the most timely issues,” said Randy Vanderhoof, executive director of the Smart Card Alliance. “The Identity Council also did a lot of important work addressing credentialing beyond the federal government, to state and local governments, emergency response officials, and the corporate enterprise. It shows the Council’s breadth in working on issues surrounding identity, security and privacy in many sectors.”

Other resources published by the Identity Council this year include: ”ePassport Frequently Asked Questions”; ”Privacy, Identity, and the Use of RFID and RF-Enabled Smart Card Technology–A Smart Card Alliance Brief for State and Local Governments”; ”Emergency Response Official Credentials: An Approach to Attain Trust in Credentials across Multiple Jurisdictions for Disaster Response and Recovery”; and ”Using FIPS 201 and the PIV Card for the Corporate Enterprise.” All of these resources can be found on the Identity Council section of the Smart Card Alliance Web site.

The Identity Council is made up of more than 90 individuals from 49 end user, chip vendor, systems integrator, card vendor, biometrics provider, identity system and software vendor organizations. Newly elected new officers are:

• Chair: Neville Pattinson, Gemalto
• Vice Chair: John McKeon, IBM
• Secretary: Sal D’Agostino, IDmachines

The 2009/2010 Steering Committee is:

• Edward Clay, Sun Microsystems
• Patrick Hearn, Oberthur Technologies
• Harold Kocken, Deloitte
• Bob Merkert, SCM Microsystems
• David Walker, Cogent Systems
• Chris Williams, SAIC

The Identity Council will attend the Smart Card Alliance 8th Annual Smart Cards in Government Conference next month to give input and hear updates on ongoing and upcoming government smart card identity and security initiatives. The event will be held October 27th to October 30th at the Washington DC Convention Center. With almost 800 registrants and 50 exhibitors and sponsors, the conference is the largest annual event for the government identity and security sector. To register, please visit the Smart Card Alliance Web site. Early registration discounts are available through September 29th.

Follow the Smart Card Alliance on Twitter at http://twitter.com/randyvanderhoof. Get up to the minute updates on the 8th Annual Smart Cards in Government Conference, or tweet your own news from the event, using #scgc09. To join the Smart Card Alliance Facebook page, visit http://tiny.cc/zAuQY.

About the Smart Card Alliance Identity Council

The Identity Council is focused on promoting the need for technologies and usage solutions regarding human identity information to address the challenges of securing identity information and reducing identity fraud and to help organizations realize the benefits that secure identity information delivers. The Council engages a broad set of participants and takes an industry perspective, bringing careful thought, joint planning, and multiple organization resources to bear on addressing the challenges of securing identity information for proper use.

About the Smart Card Alliance

The Smart Card Alliance is a not-for-profit, multi-industry association working to stimulate the understanding, adoption, use and widespread application of smart card technology.

Through specific projects such as education programs, market research, advocacy, industry relations and open forums, the Alliance keeps its members connected to industry leaders and innovative thought. The Alliance is the single industry voice for smart cards, leading industry discussion on the impact and value of smart cards in the U.S. and Latin America. For more information please visit http://www.securetechalliance.org.