Maryland rolls out new driver licenses, NEC testing face recognition payments
14 July, 2016
category: Biometrics, Corporate, Digital ID, Financial, Government, Smart Cards
Maryland issuing new driver licenses
Gemalto announced that the Maryland Department of Transportation’s Motor Vehicle Administration has begun rolling out its new secure and redesigned driver licenses and identification cards across the state.
The polycarbonate-based driver licenses gives Maryland residents a tamper-resistant credential that reduces document forgery and protects against identity fraud. Maryland selected Gemalto’s line of Sealys Secure Documents for the new polycarbonate driver licenses that includes laser-engraving, hidden security elements and tactile features specifically designed to improve document security. The material’s durability also increases the longevity of the driver’s license, fulfilling a state requirement to extend the document’s validity period to eight years.
Maryland also chose Gemalto’s Coesys Issuance Solution to personalize and produce resident’s driver’s licenses and ID cards on-site within MVA’s secure, state-of-the-art issuance center.
Gemalto’s central issuance solution fully aligns with Maryland’s goal of maintaining REAL ID compliance while offering additional security benefits. The central issuance of driver’s licenses and ID cards further enhances security by limiting access to card materials, equipment and personal information.
NEC trials facial recognition payments
NEC Corporation announced a series of trials for cashless payment services using its facial recognition technologies at small shops inside its head office building in Tokyo.
These trials are being conducted from late June to the end of August as a part of NEC’s initiatives to apply its biometrics authentication technologies to a range of services, including cashless payment, aiming to enhance the reliability and convenience of the identification process.
This payment service uses NeoFace facial recognition technologies, featuring NEC’s facial recognition algorithm. This enables identity verification by matching employees’ pre-registered facial images against the images taken by a camera that is installed near a point-of-sale terminal at the checkout counter inside a shop. With the introduction of this technology, retailers can provide shoppers with payment services, without using cash or credit cards.
During this trial, NEC analyzes authentication performance and operational workload under a wide range of conditions inside the shops, including the types of cameras in use, installation position, lighting, balance between security and convenience and others.
Entrust Datacard eases identity woes for Blackberry users
Entrust Datacard announced that the company has completed a technology integration between the Entrust IdentityGuard Mobile Smart Credential and the BlackBerry 10 Smart Card Service Framework. The integration is a step toward providing Entrust Datacard customers with frictionless, high assurance mobile solutions in combination with strategic partners like BlackBerry.
The combined solution provides BlackBerry 10 users with secure access to both enterprise and cloud-based applications on their devices without the need for physical tokens or smart cards. Traditionally, smart card based access to sensitive enterprise applications has been limited to desktop or laptop computers. As mobile becomes the primary computing platform, government agencies and enterprises are now able to fully utilize the power of mobile devices and provide employees access to sensitive applications or documents without compromising security policies.
The Entrust Mobile Smart Credential embeds a virtual smart card in mobile devices that secures user access to a range of mobile-enabled services with a single sign on including VPN access, web application access, encrypted email and digital form signing. The solution provides enterprise level security, while remaining transparent to the user and is specifically relevant for government agencies and enterprises that require higher strength security or the ability to control user privileges.
In addition to meeting the trusted identity needs of enterprise organizations, the Entrust® IdentityGuard Mobile Smart Credential solution helps U.S. government agencies address the NIST 800-157 Mobile Derived PIV credential standard by providing the required controls for provisioning identities and securing mobile access to applications and use.
SureID issues 170K PIV-I credentials
SureID, Inc. announced the two-year anniversary of issuing its first Personal Identity Verification-Interoperable (PIV-I) credential through the company’s RAPIDGate program.
Following its first PIV-I issuance at Naval Base Kitsap on July 8, 2014, more than 170,000 PIV-I credentials have been issued under the RAPIDGate program, averaging over 300 PIV-I credentials per day.
SureID’s PIV-I credentials can be issued to individuals supporting a wide variety of markets, including the commercial industry, the military services and other federal departments and agencies on a nationwide scale.
Daon unveils FIDO Quick Start
Daon announced the launch of the FIDO Quick Start to provide qualifying organizations with access to a hosted IdentityX FIDO Universal Authentication Framework Server at no cost in order to evaluate the suitability of biometric authentication for their needs.
Relying Parties will be able to deploy and evaluate FIDO standards-based authentication under the initiative. Daon is a board member of the FIDO Alliance and its IdentityX Platform was one of the first products to earn a FIDO Certified designation.
The objective of Daon’s FIDO Quick Start initiative is to accelerate adoption of FIDO authentication and will be available to qualifying organizations that want to test a FIDO standards-based solution with the goal of offering their customers a password less experience. Organizations will be able to see and test a working implementation of a FIDO UAF Server, including configuration of applications, facets and authenticators, with Daon’s support to replace passwords with biometrics.
FIDO Quick Start will enable customers to run through the registration process as well as authentications using biometrics such as fingerprint, face and voice with access to a working demo application, or they can choose to create their own with documentation provided by Daon.
