AVISIAN Publishing is pleased to announce the release of the interactive version of the Spring 2016 Regarding ID magazine. Highlights include: physical access control goes to the cloud, DOD web site kills the password and states speeding toward mobile driver licenses.

Group demos new architecture for strong authentication with fingerprint; Fujitsu launched its STYLISTIC Q736 featuring different types of security technologies including palm vein biometric; BlackRidge Technology unveiled an app to provide real-time identity attribution; the Imprimerie Nationale Group and Gemalto have been awarded a multi-year contract to deliver an ePassport solution for Peru; Smartrac has obtained Common Criteria EAL6 certification for its Thailand production site.

The World Wide Web Consortium announced new Web Authentication work based upon the member submission of FIDO 2.0 Web APIs from the FIDO Alliance; Zwipe released Zwipe ID, a card with fingerprint authentication capabilities targeted for the physical access control market; Synaptics announced a smaller fingerprint sensor.

Back in the day it was either contact or contactless interface for smart cards, choose one. But then came hybrid cards which offered both interfaces by embedding two separate chips on a single card. Today, however, demand is growing in multiple markets for dual-interface cards that offer both contact and contactless interfaces via a single chip.

The underlying technology behind contactless smart cards hasn’t changed, but that does not mean manufacturers or their offerings have stagnated. Two of the biggest changes in contactless smart card technology are the speed of the chips and the memory capacity.

EveryKey, a device that can enable access to mobile devices, laptops and even a car or home, zoomed to 676% of its crowd funding target on IndieGogo earlier this month. The product also has a recognized name backing it, John McAfee, the guy who founded a wildly successful anti-virus company and is now running for U.S. president as a Libertarian Party candidate. McAfee is now EveryKey chief evangelist and talked with Re:ID’s Gina Jordan about the system.

As credential issuers want to get a longer lifespan out of the documents card durability is becoming an important factor when choosing new materials. Federal and state agencies, as well as other high-value issuers, want to get as much out of a document as possible, and a 10-year lifespan seems the ultimate objective. To achieve this issuers are moving away from 100% PVC cards – the cheapest and most common type – to composite cards made up of a variety of materials, often including polyesters, polycarbonate or Teslin substrate.