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.  

HID Global’s naviGO software version 1.37 has received the highest possible rating, an A, from Veracode, a company that tests software for security vulnerabilities. This rating, says HID, means that naviGO has been evaluated against industry-standard benchmarks such as the common weakness enumeration, common vulnerability scoring system, and the National Institute of Standards and Technology to determine software weaknesses and vulnerability severity levels. 

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.