PRINCETON JUNCTION, N.J., Jan. 21, 2016 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- 2015 was a successful year for the Smart Card Alliance and its industry councils, which made great strides in accelerating the use and widespread adoption of smart card technology across the payments, mobile, government, enterprise and healthcare markets.
“The Smart Card Alliance provides a unique platform for our members to collaborate on projects that will move the smart card industry forward,” said Randy Vanderhoof, executive director of the Smart Card Alliance. “Our council members dedicate a tremendous amount of time and effort to providing education and best practices for implementing more secure technologies across a wide range of use cases.”
The Smart Card Alliance’s industry councils include Access Control, Health and Human Services, Identity, Mobile and NFC, Payments, and Transportation Councils.
Access Control Council
The Access Control Council focuses on accelerating the widespread acceptance, use and application of smart card technology to improve security and more accurately verify the identity of individuals seeking access to physical facilities, networks, devices and information systems.
In 2015, the council educated the industry on further advancing the adoption of high security smart card-based physical access control systems (PACS) with a guide specifications resource, “Guide Specification for Architects and Engineers for Smart Card-based PACS Cards and Readers for Non-government PACS.”
The council also led the development of workshops including “Best Practices and Technology Trends for Strong Multifactor Authentication and Managing Identities of People and Internet Devices” in collaboration with the Identity Council, and “Enterprise Physical Access Control Systems (EPACS) Using Smart Card Technology for Government and Commercial Organizations.”
In 2016, the Access Control Council will continue to provide guidance on implementation of smart card technology for access control, particularly focusing on logical and physical access use cases in government.
Health and Human Services Council
The Health and Human Services Council promotes smart card technology for patient and provider IDs to streamline operations workflow, reduce administrative costs, prevent medical identity theft and fraud, and increase patient safety and satisfaction.
The council educated the healthcare industry in 2015 through presentations at industry events and other industry outreach. Council presentations were featured at NAHAM’s annual conference on “Securing Access to Government Sponsored Healthcare with PIV-I,” and at AHIMA on “Streamlining Identity and Information Management with Smart Cards.” Both sessions highlighted the use of smart cards to streamline and secure processes such as patient and provider identification, prevent data entry and billing errors, and eliminate the creation of duplicate and overlay records.
The Health and Human Services Council in 2016 will continue to develop the vision for a credential-based patient and provider identity management system to reduce health risks, fraud, waste and misuse at every stage of the healthcare flow.
Identity Council
The Identity Council focuses on secure identities, a critically important issue for citizens, governments, enterprises and any organization that determines rights and privileges for individuals.
In 2015, the council collaborated with the Alliance’s Access Control Council to develop the workshop, “Best Practices and Technology Trends for Strong Multifactor Authentication and Managing Identities of People and Internet Devices.”
In 2016, the Identity Council will focus on leveraging smart card technology to enable secure identity credentials, particularly in developing areas such as online identity and mobile credentialing.
Mobile and NFC Council
The Mobile and NFC Council activities focus on helping to accelerate the practical use of NFC applications. In 2015, the council put forward a workshop at the NFC Solutions Summit, “Implementation Considerations for NFC and other Mobile Technologies: Payments and Beyond.”
The council also developed a webinar, “Host Card Emulation: An Emerging Architecture for NFC Applications,” and published the “NFC Non-Payments Use Cases” white paper, which describes 11 uses cases for marketing, identity and access, ticketing and gaming.
As the mobile payments market continues to gain traction, the Mobile and NFC Council will focus in 2016 on authentication and identity of devices and users to facilitate the use and acceptance of secure mobile applications in the U.S.
Payments Council
The Payments Council focuses on facilitating the adoption of chip-enabled payments and payment applications in the U.S. and works closely with the EMV Migration Forum to educate stakeholders on the security benefits of EMV chip technology.
In 2015 council focused efforts on educating the market on the impacts of a data breach through a white paper, “The True Cost of Data Breaches in the Payments Industry.” The white paper provides a resource for organizations to better understand the substantial tangible and intangible costs associated with data breaches, and why investing in strong preventive technologies is important.
The council led the 2015 Payments Summit workshop, “Payments Technologies and Innovations Workshop: Payment Strategy Considerations for Issuers, Retailers and Transit Agencies,” and published the white paper, “EMV and NFC: Complementary Technologies Enabling Secure Contactless Payments,” in collaboration with the Mobile and NFC Council.
In 2016, the Payments Council will continue to provide educational resources to facilitate the growth of contactless payments using both payments cards and mobile devices. The council will also delve into the security and adoption of cryptocurrencies as they continue to build momentum in the payments space.
Transportation Council
The Transportation Council works to accelerate the deployment of standards-based smart card payment programs within the transportation industry through promoting the adoption of interoperable contactless smart card payment systems for transit and other transportation services.
In 2015, the Transportation Council collaborated with the International Parking Institute (IPI) to create a white paper, “EMV and Parking.” The white paper provides guidance and education surrounding the transition to chip technology and the fraud liability shift in the parking industry.
The Transportation Council will move into 2016 focusing on evolving payments architectures, including open payments, and the convergence of multimodal payments in transit.
For updates from the Smart Card Alliance and its councils in 2016, follow @SmartCardOrgUSA on Twitter, and visit www.smartcardalliance.com.
To learn more about the Smart Card Alliance councils and the available resources, visit http://www.smartcardalliance.org/activities-councils/.
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.smartcardalliance.org.