SmartGroup USA, a provider of card issuance and card payment solutions to the banking and card payment industry, announced the launch of SmartGroup USA.

This follows a recent announcement by the company to open two new technical support centers in eastern Canada and the western United States. SmartGroup USA also announced key partnerships with a North American card issuance provider, which was not named, and Zebra Technologies. Zebra Technologies designs and manufactures printing devices that print variable information on demand, at the point of issuance, including an array of card personalization products. 

Swedish hospitals are now using YubiKey USB authentication to meet security requirements guidelines established by the Swedish Data Inspection Agency.

Leveraging strong authentication, employees use YubiKey to securely log on to “Riks-Stroke,” the national register center for acute stroke patients. All Swedish health care providers admitting acute stroke patients participate in the program, which stores data on more than a quarter million stroke events. 

idOnDemand and NXP Semiconductors have partnered to bring smart card security to mobile device authentication. By using near field communication technology and embedding NXP Semiconductors’ SmartMX chip into an idOnDemand SmartID card, customers can facilitate a secure login from their tablet computer, smart phone or hand-held mobile phone.

With an idOnDemand SmartID, users can authenticate to corporate or cloud resources by simply presenting their corporate ID card to the device. There is no need for a client or custom application to be installed on their personal mobile devices. 

The impact of FIPS 201-2, ICAM, PIV-I, NSTIC

A little over a year ago IDmachines reviewed the FIPS 201 Government Services Administration (GSA) Approved Products List (APL) also known as FIPS 201 Evaluation Program Products and Services.

FIPS 201, Personal Identity Verification (PIV), has just been updated with a draft FIPS 201-2. This is part of an coordinated set of identity and cybersecurity activities on the part of the United States government that includes the Federal Identity, Credentialing and Access Management (ICAM) and the National Strategy for Trusted Identities in Cyberspace (NSTIC).

At the time of this post there were 514 products listed. This does not take into account the shared service providers that issue digital certificates that form the basis of the federal government and related commercial public key infrastructure (PKI). PIV credentials have been complemented by the issuance of interoperable credentials for non-Federal government entities by those cross-certified as Personal Identity Verification Interoperability (PIV-) issuers. 

IronKey announced its Trusted Access Elite Channel Partner Program. The initiative enables selected partners to help institutions offering commercial, business, and municipal online banking combat threats posed by cyber criminals using financial malware.

IronKey Trusted Access protects from bank phishing, session hijacking, and account credential stealing malware favored by criminals. With IronKey Trusted Access for Banking, institutions can stop online account takeovers, prevent automated clearing house and wire fraud, and generate new revenue. 

VASCO announced the acquisition of Alfa & Ariss, an open identity and access management specialist of Enschede, The Netherlands. VASCO acquired all of the stock of A&A in exchange for cash consideration of approximately $1.4 million.

The acquisition provides technical know-how that is expected to enhance VASCO’s DIGIPASS as a Service infrastructure and strengthen VASCO’s Enterprise Security offerings. It also brings additional engineering capabilities to VASCO. 

Department of Defense explores future form factors, PKI applications

It was 10-year ago this past October when the first U.S. Defense Department Common Access Card was issued. Since then the largest U.S. agency has issued 24 million of the smart card-based secure credentials.

In that time the staff at the Defense Manpower Data Center (DMDC), the group within DOD responsible for issuing the card, went from simply issuing an ID card to truly managing with identity, says Mike Butler, deputy director of identity services at the DMDC.

Butler was with the Defense Department when it first issued the credential and rejoined the agency in August 2010 after three years away.