Oberthur positions itself for e-passports, Common Access Card programs
03 August, 2004
category: Biometrics, Contactless, Government
Oberthur Card Systems’ recent NIST certification of its 64K dual interface smart card will allow the company to favorably compete for electronic passport production as well as possibly participate in the next phase of the United States Department of Defense’s Common Access Card project.
Oberthur Card Systems Receives First FIPS 140-2 LEVEL 3 Certification for Dual Interface Contact and Contactless 64K Smart Cards
LOS ANGELES–Oberthur Card Systems, a leading issuer of smart cards in the United States, has announced that its ID-One 64K dual interface contact and contactless (ISO 14443) smart card is the first of its type to receive the U.S. government’s FIPS 140-2 Level 3 certification, positioning it for use in the next phase of the Department of Defense’s (DoD) Common Access Card (CAC) program.
The certification, which is awarded by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), also allows Oberthur Card Systems to compete globally for e-passport contracts. These machine-readable passports – which contain a contactless smart card chip that is compliant with new International Civil Aviation Authority (ICAO) specifications and is used to store biometric information – have been mandated by the Department of Homeland Security’s U.S. Visitor and Immigrant Status Indicator Technology (US-VISIT) program and by the Department of State’s latest e-passport Request For Proposal.
Oberthur Card Systems card solution brings the smart card industry’s latest standards to the government arena for the first time. The card also is fully compliant with the GSC-IS 2.1 specification, a standard that will help to ensure interoperability across government agencies and departments.
Oberthur Card Systems’ ID-One solution makes available all 64K for customer-specified applications and biometric information such as facial, iris or fingerprint records. Contactless ID smart card solutions increase the speed and ease with which authorized personnel can access secure virtual and physical environments. In addition to identification and authentication, ID-One’s large available storage capacity and processing power allow it to serve multiple purposes including the digital signing and encryption of emails, or for storing data such as important medical information.
Oberthur Card Systems has already issued significant quantities of 32K smart cards for ID and security to the Defense Manpower Data Center (DMDC) – which administers the DoD’s CAC program – the U.S. Department of State, the U.S. Army, the U.S. Department of Treasury, the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) and the General Services Administration (GSA).
The U.S. government is making smart cards an integral part of its drive to secure its information systems and physical facilities, issuing them to as many as 40 million individuals, according to the Interior Department. To provide secure products on a scale demanded by the U.S. government, cards can be issued out of any of Oberthur Card Systems’ three personalization facilities in the United States: Los Angeles, Naperville, IL and Chantilly, VA, with each site serving as an instant backup to the others if required.
As the subsidiary of the Francois-Charles Oberthur Group, a world leader in the issuance of traditional and chip-enabled passports who has designed and manufactured passport and ID documents for over 50 countries, as well as the world’s third largest banknote printer, Oberthur Card Systems is the only company in the world that can combine secure passport issuance with high-capacity, high-security and FIPS-approved contact and contactless microprocessors.
About Oberthur Card Systems
With sales of 430.1 million Euros in 2003, Oberthur Card Systems is one of the world’s leading providers of card-based solutions, software and applications including SIM and multi-application smart cards as well as services ranging from consulting to personalization. Oberthur Card Systems is a subsidiary of the Francois-Charles Oberthur Group. For more information, visit www.oberthurcs.com or www.oberthurusa.com.
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