William I. MacGregor, one of the driving forces behind the government’s FIPS 201 smart card specification passed away last week. MacGregor, Ph.D., CISSP, CISA, served the government and private sector for more than 32 years as a technologist and business strategist, focusing on identity management and enterprise security solutions. MacGregor joined the Computer Security Division, […]

M1 has joined StarHub and Singtel as the third mobile operator in Singapore to offer SIM-based NFC mobile services. M1’s two million subscribers can now use their NFC handsets equipped with M1’s NFC-enabled SIM cards to make contactless payments at any MasterCard PayPass or EZ-Link payment point in Singapore. M1 customers have the option of […]

The Czech Republic’s Komerční banka has announced a partnership with Visa Europe, Telefónica and Samsung to trial SIM-based NFC payments. The first 2,000 Samsung Galaxy S III smart phone owners who sign up for the pilot will be able to swap out their old SIM cards for an NFC-enabled KB Mobile Card that can power […]

HID Global has expanded its line of Crescendo C1150 smart card credentials to cover more converged logical and physical access applications, including two-factor authentication for PC login, accessing VPNs, creating PKI-based digital signatures, generating OTPs and improving data protection for data-at-rest and secure data transmission. The Crescendo C1150 smart cards can function in a stand-alone […]

Singapore Telecommunications (SingTel) and EZ-Link have partnered to launch a new mobile payments service for NFC-enabled smart phones. Fresh on the heels of rival teleco Star Hub’s NFC wallet launch, SingTel’s new service enables users to make cashless payments by tapping their NFC-enabled handsets against contactless readers at over 20,000 EZ-Link payment points across Singapore, […]

The Metro EZ transit pass, a monthly pass good for local travel on 24 different public transit carriers throughout the Greater Los Angeles region, is planning to go paperless as it leaps onto the TAP (Transit Access Pass), L.A. County’s new fare payment system. According to blogdowntown.com, starting Sept. 1, EZ pass will be loaded […]

Bell ID announced that is trusted service manager (TSM) software solution has been selected by TrustNorway to facilitate the delivery of NFC services to its customers. Using Bell ID’s Mobile Token Manager solution, TrustNorway will be able to establish itself as the Nordic region’s first neutral TSM, and as such it will be able to […]

In an effort to reduce the need for paper tickets while also offering passengers an easier method to pay for their journeys, Newport Bus has launched the new Freedom smartcard, according to BBC News. The free smart card will serve as an alternative to paying cash for paper tickets by deducting the cost from the […]

The Ghana Interbank Payment and Settlement Systems (GhIPSS) has calculated that use of the e-zwich biometric smart card has jumped about 500% in the first half of 2012, reports Ghana Web. Most of this growth occurred in the second quarter. Both value of sales transactions and volume of the transactions with the card rose over […]

The U.S. Government Printing Office awarded two contracts for the covers of the U.S. passport, which includes contactless smart card chips and antenna, to Gemalto Inc. and Infineon Technologies North America Corp. Both companies had previously supplied smart card chips to the Printing Office for e-passports. Terms of the five-year contracts were not disclosed. As […]