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Smart Cards Advance in IT Security, Federated Identity: Highlights From Smart Card Alliance/CTST Conference
(Marketwire Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) PRINCETON JUNCTON, NJ, May 19 / MARKET WIRE/ --
The number of U.S. employees using
smart card technology to access computers and networks at work continues to
grow as enterprises look for better ways to protect information, according
to presenters at the joint Smart Card Alliance annual meeting and CTST
conference last week. Compounding this growth is the rise of federated
identity networks in the pharmaceutical, aerospace and defense, and
government sectors.
Pharmaceutical
The pharmaceutical industry is moving rapidly to use digital identification
and signatures, and the companies involved are "mostly using smart cards or
USB tokens," said Chris Vietor, program director for the SAFE-BioPharma
Association. The organization's membership is a who's who of the industry,
including Pfizer, Johnson & Johnson, Merck, Proctor & Gamble and many other
household names. SAFE-BioPharma acts as a trust broker, bridging trust
networks between the organization's members and providing an implementation
framework that gives digital signatures the same legal stature as wet ones.
"Our vision is to be totally electronic by 2012," Vietor said.
The most popular application is electronic lab notebooks. Researchers are
required to have a witness sign and date records for every experiment they
do; replacing these wet signatures is a big time saver. Vietor announced
the association has a new vendor certification program that should be of
interest to smart card device manufacturers.
Aerospace, Defense and Government
The aerospace and defense industry, working with the UK Ministry of Defense
and the U.S. Department of Defense, has a similar global initiative called
the Transglobal Secure Collaboration Program (TSCP). It aims to provide a
trust network for federated identities and secure information exchange
between governments and defense contractors worldwide. This will
ultimately impact some 300,000 companies in the global supply chain,
according to Iana Bohmer, director, Identity Management Solutions for
Northrop Grumman.
The Boeing Co. uses smart card credentials for medium or higher assurance
identity authentication within the TSCP framework, according to Carolyn
Loew, secure badge product lead for Boeing. Boeing was one of the first
large corporations to issue smart cards to all of its employees, and has
issued 160,600 "SecureBadges" for both proximity physical access control
and strong authentication for desktop and network access. The company is
starting to look at a next generation card that is FIPS 201 compliant, she
said.
More information about the Smart Card Alliance can be found at
www.smartcardalliance.org.
About the Smart Card Alliance
The Smart Card Alliance is a not-for-profit, multi-industry association
working to stimulate the understanding, adoption, use and widespread
application of smart card technology.
Through specific projects such as education programs, market research,
advocacy, industry relations and open forums, the Alliance keeps its
members connected to industry leaders and innovative thought. The Alliance
is the single industry voice for smart cards, leading industry discussion
on the impact and value of smart cards in the U.S. and Latin America. For
more information please visit http://www.smartcardalliance.org.
Contact:
Deb Montner
Montner & Associates
203-226-9290dmontner@montner.com
Copyright ? 2008 Marketwire
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