Mitre gets cybersecurity center, China Mobile taps Gemalto, Alibaba joins FIDO
25 September, 2014
category: Corporate, Digital ID, Financial, Government, NFC, Smart Cards
Mitre Corp. taped for cybersecurity center
The U.S. Commerce Department’s National Institute of Standards and Technology has awarded a contract to operate its first Federally Funded Research and Development Center, which will support the National Cybersecurity Center of Excellence. The Indefinite Delivery, Indefinite Quantity contract was awarded to The MITRE Corporation. It includes three initial tasks totaling about $29 million. This FFRDC is the first solely dedicated to enhancing the security of the nation’s information systems.
The award marks a new phase for the center, which was established in partnership with the state of Maryland and Montgomery County, Md., in February 2012. The center helps businesses secure their data and digital infrastructure by bringing together experts from industry, government and academia to provide real-world cybersecurity solutions based on commercially available technologies.
The contract to operate the development center is a single award contract with a maximum amount of $5 billion over 25 years, beginning with a base performance period of five years, followed by four option periods of five years each.
The center engages public and private partners through long- and short-term collaboration efforts and has been working with members of industry sectors such as health care and energy to identify common concerns and develop model cybersecurity examples and practice guides. It also works with small groups of vendors to develop “building blocks,” which address technical cybersecurity challenges that are common across multiple industry sectors.
China Mobile selects Gemalto for SIMs
Gemalto has been selected by China Mobile to offer its UpTeq NFC Multi-tenant SIMs to protect consumer credentials used for mobile contactless applications, starting with mass transit services in Beijing.
China Mobile has a total subscriber base of close to 800 million. Gemalto pre-loads the SIMs with the Beijing transport application and enables over 22 million daily commuters in the city to ride buses and the metro by simply tapping their smartphones on the contactless ticket reader.
In addition to the transport application, the UpTeq NFC Multi-tenant SIMs installed in all types of handsets will be ready to host and enable a rich addition of secure services such as mobile payment, loyalty and couponing programs, and access control for private enterprises.
The UpTeq NFC Multi-tenant SIM forms part of Gemalto’s portfolio of mobile contactless solutions, which include the Allynis Trusted Services Hub.
Secure Network Services, HID receive GSA approval
Secure Network Systems announced that the U.S. General Services Administration has approved the CRITSEC physical access control system with high-assurance readers and validation software as a fully compliant FICAM Solution.
The approval means that CRITSEC from Secure Network Systems, along with HID Global pivCLASS readers and validation software now meet the testing requirements and comply with the FICAM standards of the GSA’s FIPS 201 Approved Product List.
Products were subjected to numerous tests to ensure that the system correctly performs the multiple validation functions including biometric, PIN, certificate, signature, card expiration and certificate revocation checks and is not prone to credential spoofing or other types of unauthorized access that could compromise the security of the system.
GlobalPlatform expands mobile compliance program
GlobalPlatform has expanded its support for the mobile services community with the advancement of its device compliance program. The latest updates will enable mobile handset manufacturers to confirm that products align with SIMalliance’s Open Mobile API Specification and the GlobalPlatform Secure Element Access Control Specification, contributing to NFC deployments for application developers and service providers.
High value mobile applications, such as banking and ticketing, rely on communication between two applications, the mobile wallet on the device and its counterpart application on the secure element, which stores sensitive information and performs the secure transaction. To successfully and efficiently deliver services to the end-users the wallet requires immediate connection to the SE. SIMalliance’s OMAPI and GlobalPlatform’s SEAC Specifications provide this underlying SE access technology.
Alibaba joins FIDO Alliance
The FIDO Alliance and Alibaba Group, an online and mobile commerce company, announced that Alibaba has joined the FIDO Alliance as a board member. Alibaba’s payments business, Alipay is among the first to deploy FIDO technology for secure payments authentication with FIDO Alliance founding member Nok Nok Labs.
