Within the next five years, consumers will be carrying multiple secure identities on smart devices and not plastic cards – a move that could replace all previous mechanical keys and dedicated one-time password hardware for physical and logical access control. This single card or device will be part of an access control ecosystem that provides a seamless user experience and can flexibly scale and adapt, while also delivering growing value to the organization.

Health care is looking to secure access to patient records and many different technologies have been deployed. Prox cards are one technology that has been used by some in health care and has some issues when being used for network access.

Gallagher started out helping businesses with animal management, farming, wild game and zoos but realized that protecting and managing animals of the four-legged variety could translate to securing facilities for two-legged people. The company is now making waves in the U.S. federal space with its physical access control products.

Text-based two-factor authentication is better than just a user name and password but still not perfect. An international cyber attack known as Operation Emmental is a man-in-the-middle attack that enables hackers to gain access to bank accounts by skirting text-based two-factor authentication.

Gemalto acquired all of the outstanding shares of Marquis ID Systems; HID Global announced the addition of partners who have joined the company’s Enterprise Application Partners program; Entrust Datacard released the Datacard DuraShield Holographic Overlay to its secure supply product line; The Secure Identity & Biometrics Association and the Security Industry Association announced the formation of the Airport Entry and Exit Working Group; Farpointe Data unveiled its P-900 proximity reader that enables up to 20-inch read range applications.

It’s been a busy year for the newly branded Entrust Datacard. The merger of the two companies was announced a year ago, with the new company and brand being revealed at the 2014 CARTES conference. The company followed that up by also announcing an extension of a partnership with Interpol and two new product announcements.

XTec was awarded the HSPD-12 Shared Service Provider contract by the General Services Administration and will suply PIV credentials and services to more than 100 government agencies.

The Sesames Awards were gives out at the start of the 2014 CARTES Secure Connexions conference in Paris. The only company to win more than one award was Syniverse in the Retail/Loyalty and Trusted Internet/Authentication categories.