Oracle announced the availability of the first components of Oracle Identity Management 11g including Oracle Platform Security Services, Oracle Internet Directory 11g, Oracle Virtual Directory 11g, and Oracle Identity Federation 11g.

Oracle Platform Security Services (OPSS), a new layer for security services available through Oracle Fusion Middleware, delivers a Service-Oriented Security foundation. As a security framework Oracle Platform Security Services enables developers to build security into their applications and deploy them into a centralized identity management framework.

The March meeting of the influential Government Smart Card Interagency Advisory Board (IAB) was recently held in Washington D.C. FIPS201.com was on hand to cover the event and has provided, as a service to the IAB and the smart card community, an audio recording of the presentations. Click on the link below to access a list of audio and accompanying PowerPoint slides (in pdf format).

Visit FIPS201.com to hear the presentations and view the slides.  

CardLogix, a provider of smart cards and software for secure digital authentication, and charismathics, a vendor of IT security components and identity management middleware, announced that they have formalized a partnership. charismathics is now a Smart Partner, supporting its solutions with CardLogix SIMs and smart cards. Together, these products form a solution for securing identity on mobile handsets and other devices.

These solutions are designed to fill an acute need for securing identity and data on mobile handsets as applications exponentially grow. Operators need authentication to protect against fraud and unauthorized use, and to assure customers that their personal data is safe and protected.

Gemalto announced the commercial launch of Ezio Optical TAN, an optical authentication reader for online banking designed for the German market.

The size of a credit card, the Gemalto reader fits in a wallet along with the banking card. Ezio Optical TAN is compliant with the latest German handheld device standard and leverages the security of the Secure Chip Card Operating System banking cards.

Zvetco Biometrics announced that its Verifi line of fingerprint biometric readers are now compatible with Sun Microsystems’ Identity Management Suite via the integration of BiObex, a biometric middleware from Advanced Biometric Controls.

This integration enables biometric security to be applied through the Web-based identity management capabilities available on Sun’s Identity Management Suite.  

Adding IT applications to the existing physical security badges paves the way

Using contactless technology on the desktop to lock down computers is starting to find more proponents as companies begin to ratchet up their portfolios to include more logical access devices that make it easier, and potentially less expensive, to migrate to the systems.

Logical access can involve either contact or contactless ID cards as well as key fobs but it goes beyond simple passwords. The majority of logical access smart card systems up until now have involved contact cards. But as contactless smart cards become more prevalent for physical access, vendors have introduced products so the same card can be used for logical access.

It all comes down to using the same badge to get in the front door and to logon to a computer. This has been problematic in the past because of cost and technology issues, says Dan DeBlasio, director of business development of identity and access management at HID Global. “Many organizations have not yet moved beyond password-only security because traditional alternative log-in solutions have been too involved or too costly,” he says.

The General Services Administration will unveil Central Certificate Validator program that will of perform certificate path discovery and validation (PD-VAL) in compliance with RFC 5280 in support of PKI-based authentication mechanisms described in FIPS 201.

The proof-of-concept of the Central Certificate Validator will be demonstrated to agencies, suppliers and other interested parties on July 21 at 2.00 pm ET at the GSA Auditorium at 1800 F Street Washington DC 20405. At this time, vendors will showcase interoperability of their products, such as handheld devices and computer applications, with this GSA validation service.

The last thing you want to experience when you check your email is to be denied access to your account. That’s what happened recently to some students at Southern Illinois University when they either missed the memo about the school changing its log-in procedure or simply forgot.

The change was not automatic, which means students and faculty had to go through a process to prove their identity to unlock their new network IDs. Students received new logins consisting of the letters “SIU” and their Dawg Tag numbers, and old network IDs became invalid as of Sunday.

The university’s technical support center received a number of calls from people whom had only used the numbers, but not the word in front of them. Another administrator cautioned that students should read all of the directions for changing their log-in process “without skipping any of the steps.”

Read more here.