Finland taps Gemalto for ePassports, Quebec facility operational

Gemalto has been chosen by the National Police Board in Finland to supply the country’s new ePassport. The new travel document has advanced security features and is fully compliant with ICAO requirements. Gemalto is already responsible for Finland’s polycarbonate electronic ID (eID) and resident permit cards.

Under the new multi-year contract Gemalto will produce and personalize hundreds of thousands of Sealys ePassports and eID cards each year. These will be issued to citizens within days or even hours, via a nationwide network of trusted retail outlets and delivery points.

Finland was the first country in the world to introduce polycarbonate material for secure documents in 1989, as well as the first passport with a polycarbonate data page a few years later. This latest evolution of its ePassport incorporates numerous advances in fraud protection. In line with the ICAO and European Union requirements regarding security and privacy, the holder’s digital photograph and fingerprints are stored safely in the contactless microprocessor that is embedded in the passport’s polycarbonate data page.

Gemalto also announced that Quebec’s driver license and vehicle registration authority, SAAQ, has declared Gemalto’s new central issuance facility for driver’s licenses operational. Gemalto’s team worked closely with SAAQ over the past eight months to integrate the central issuance solution into SAAQ’s headquarters. The first cards have been delivered to Quebec drivers as of September 2015.

In addition to providing the Coesys Issuance Solution for central issuance, the multi-year contract with SAAQ also includes a custom designed artwork and the polycarbonate-based driver license, known for its ability to support strong tactile security features.

Switching to a polycarbonate driver’s license has two advantages: offering Quebec drivers a more secure form of identity in addition to increased durability of the driver’s license. This also reduces the cost of frequent reissuance and is more convenient for citizens.

ASSA ABLOY Hospitality secure 100K guest rooms

ASSA ABLOY Hospitality Mobile Access has been implemented on more than 100,000 guestroom door locks worldwide.

With consumers increasingly demanding instant service and satisfaction, Mobile Access provides guests with a tool that enables them to take charge of their hotel stay experience from the moment they arrive. The convenient mobile-phone-based solution allows them to use their own smart device as a room key and go directly to their assigned room, eliminating the need to wait in line at the front desk for check-in or checkout.

Powered by Seos, Mobile Access can be accessed via BLE-compatible mobile phones, tablets or wearables such as smart watches. Available to guests as a mobile app download, Mobile Access provides properties with several options for implementing the solution. Properties may choose to integrate the service into their own existing mobile app and back end system, or opt to provide a basic Mobile Access solution, which can be accomplished using ASSA ABLOY Hospitality’s off-the-shelf solution. Those that wish to offer a mobile app beyond simple access control but do not have an app of their own may select a solution from one of ASSA ABLOY Hospitality’s Certified Partners.

100+ devices FIDO certified

The FIDO Alliance announced that more than 100 solutions are now FIDO Certified. Hundreds of millions of end-users’ desktop and mobile apps have FIDO-enabled authentication protection available from service providers, including Google, PayPal, Samsung, Bank of America, NTT DOCOMO, Dropbox, and GitHub. Another milestone achieved with today’s announcement is that FIDO authentication is now enabled on devices from the top five global handset manufacturers.

Organizations with new FIDO Certified products announced today include: DDS, Egis, ETRI, EyeVerify, Feitian Technologies, Gemalto, Huawei, Infineon, Inside Secure, Ledger, Lenovo, LG Electronics, Longmai, Morpho, NXP, Raonsecure, Samsung SDS, Secuve, Watchdata Technologies, SurePass ID, and Yubico.

The growing collection of FIDO products and services enables individuals and organizations across enterprise, government, health care and financial services to eliminate weak username and password-based authentication and move to strong authentication for data security.

For device technology providers, using the FIDO specifications can simplify development and maintenance of biometrics and other second-factor capabilities. The FIDO Alliance provides one specification and a certification process to ensure compliance and interoperability. For application or IT infrastructure developers, these same benefits apply and FIDO Certified products offer a range of pre-certified solutions and services used to add biometrics or other strong authentication security to online applications and systems.

The Alliance is working on expanding the adoption of FIDO authentication to all platforms and devices. The Alliance recently submitted to the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), the international standards organization for the World Wide Web, a set of three technical specifications that form the foundation for this expansion.

Swivel Secure unveils cloud-based auth platform

Swivel Secure, a provider of adaptive multi-factor authentication, announced the launch of Swivel Cloud, a cloud-based version of its authentication platform for small and medium-sized enterprises.

Swivel Cloud enables businesses of all sizes to apply multi-factor authentication to a wide range of business applications without incurring the capital expenditure on infrastructure associated with an on premise solution.

Swivel Cloud supports both token and tokenless environments, enabling customers with legacy investments in OATH token-based solutions to migrate to the cloud and to a tokenless solution according to their own roadmap.

The Swivel authentication platform offers a range of deployment options and now provides users with the option to migrate to a dedicated cloud environment in order to protect all their web, VPN, VDI and cloud application gateways. The platform also offers customers the choice of mobile app, SMS and interactive voice response channels, together with PINsafe Swivel’s unique, patented one-time-code extraction protocol for when additional security is required.

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