Yubico, a Palo Alto, Calif.-based provider of online identity protection, says its YubiKey is being chosen by more and more Swedish schools and municipalities to meet the government’s requirements for strong two-factor authentication. Lerum Kommun, Sweden is the latest region to deploy YubiKeys for staff and students who need to access cloud-based school systems. The […]

Stagecoach, one of the UK’s largest bus and rail operators, has partnered with mobile operator Everything Everywhere to trial NFC payments in Cambridgeshire, UK. The trial, dubbed “the UK’s first Government-standard commercial deployment of mobile contactless transport ticketing,” enables a small group of bus users to receive, store and validate their bus tickets using their […]

Executives from MasterCard, Sony, Intel and other payments and consumer tech leaders took the stage earlier this week at the Smart Card Alliance’s NFC Solutions Summit 2012 to declare that NFC is coming soon, and when it does, it will enable a broad array of applications that will enhance the consumer experience at the point-of-sale […]

France’s Toulouse-Blagnac Airport is gearing up to test a new service that lets passengers check-in, access their departure gates and pass through other controlled areas using just an NFC-enabled mobile phone. The trial, which involves partners SITA, Orange, and BlackBerry, will launch this summer with 50 selected passengers using their BlackBerry smart phones equipped with […]

Tyfone has been awarded two U.S. Patents for its new miniaturized NFC antenna design. Specifically designed for use in MicroSD cards, the mini antenna works with any smart card secure element, across multiple mobile devices and on any NFC reader without the need for external booster antennas or after-market battery covers. According to Tyfone, the […]

The Invercargill City Council announced it will equip its passenger transport buses with new electronic ticketing machines in the hope that it leads to the introduction a new smart transit card system, according to The Southland Times. The council last year decided to investigate the installation of smart cards which could be used to pay […]

Al Bilad Bank, a Shariah-based financial organization in Saudi Arabia, has deployed Gemalto’s Dexxis Instant Issuance solution for EMV payment cards in more than 120 bank branches. With this system, Al Bilad can issue up to 2,000 EMV DDA high-end security smart cards a day. Gemalto customized the solution in Arabic for use at the […]

DigitalPersona Inc. released a new version of its DigitalPersona Pro Enterprise software that includes facial recognition as a method for authentication. Facial recognition can now be combined with fingerprint biometrics, passwords, PINs, proximity cards, smart cards and OATH tokens for a multi-factor authentication solution. Policy creation and enforcement works through a client’s existing Active Directory […]

The market for smart cards and secure ICs achieved double-digit year-over-year growth for shipments in 2011, demonstrating increases of 16% and 15%, respectively, according to ABI Research Volumes continued ramping up, driven by further mobile penetration, the ongoing developments in the SIM card sector and the number of countries migrating to EMV. The top three […]

The Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (CIBC) and mobile operator Rogers Communications are partnering to launch Canada’s first joint mobile payment solution, allowing Canadians to pay with their CIBC credit card at the point-of-sale using NFC-enabled smart phones. The mobile wallet solution is expected to launch later this year, and will be available at merchants […]