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Smartcard briefs

Hanis is working

Tintswallo Shilowa, a business development manager from the Department of Home Affairs, at the e-government conference in Johannesburg, differentiated between the population register and the envisaged smart ID card, and said the population register is now working and information is being digitised. She also assured delegates that the Hanis project would not be considered complete until the smart ID card system is also operational. A pre-qualification tender is expected before the end of 2005, the tender in 2006 and the first cards issued in 2007.

Innovation in cryptography to drive new security protocols in chip manufacture

The seventh annual CHES (Cryptographic Hardware and Embedded Systems) Conference in Edinburgh, Scotland, was well attended by a mix of leading researchers from both academia and industry - representing prestigious companies and organisations such as IBM, Intel, Infineon, Siemens, Toshiba, Hitachi, Philips, NEC and Atmel. Delegates from key cryptography departments, such as Cambridge, Bristol, Louvain-la-Neuve and Leuven Universities, were also there.

Overall, the main theme of the invited talks and surrounding discussion was how to balance freedom of information required for commerce with the equally demanding identity security needs of individuals and corporations. Some key conclusions and countermeasures were identified and included:

* Investigation of new, potential side channel attacks, both against specific implementations and involving new concepts - so as to have remedial action in place.

* Developing new algorithms to hide secret key bits to prevent the cloning of cards.

There was acknowledgement that the challenge remains to develop further protocols for more effective hiding of the secret keys to mitigate the vulnerability of cards to attack.

Enormous RFID growth coming

The radio frequency identification (RFID) market in SA will soon enter an enormous growth phase and once there is understanding of the technology and the applications it can address, there will be a huge uptake in its use. This is the view of Sheldon Henen, technical director of newly formed Harmonic RFID, a subsidiary of the Harmonic Group that specialises in mobile computing. "The growth trend of RFID-enabled solutions is already noticeable in the local market with numerous requests for proposals and tenders that are being sent out calling for either RFID solutions or systems that would perfectly suit RFID technology," says Henen.

Harmonic Group MD and Harmonic RFID co-owner Barry Baetu says: "Harmonic RFID was founded to meet the anticipated growth, which is initially expected to be in mission-critical, high-value, closed loop applications such as the mining and automotive industries. Harmonic RFID has support from some of the strongest forces in the local RFID market, ranging from product supply to implementation, including companies like DarkStar SA, Evolving Management Solutions and Alliance SA." According to Baetu, the supporting companies will supply product, skills and support to enable Harmonic RFID to provide working solutions while continuing to operate as separate entities.

RFID to track people - good or evil?

The following accounts succinctly highlight the debate about using RFID technology to tag people:

The general workers' union GMB has officially submitted a report to the European Commission calling for a ban on the use by employers of RFID to tag employees. The GMB threatened a strike if employers did not stop using RFID to track employee movements, a practice they label 'dehumanising'. According to the GMB, companies are using RFID to monitor the accuracy and efficacy of employee work patterns, including even their use of the bathroom on the job. The implicated employers deny this.

The workers' union is looking for prompt action from the European Commission, which it accuses of being oblivious to the uptake in RFID employee tracking.

Then we have the story of the Presbyterian Hospital in Charlotte, North Carolina, where the 'Hugs' RFID infant protection system from VeriChip reportedly thwarted an attempted abduction. The Hugs system sounded a 'Code Pink' alert when a tagged baby was removed from the nursery. Hospital security then swooped in and safely recovered the child. According to VeriChip, there has been an average of one infant kidnapping from healthcare facilities every two years in the United Sates for the last 20 years.

One account is about RFID being used by employers to impose a watchful 'eye' over employees, while the other illustrates the technology's ability to prevent a life-shattering nightmare.

As with any technology, RFID is intrinsically neither good nor evil; it is only what people do with it that ultimately determines its impact.

Smartcards lead RFID tag consumption

The biggest contributor to RFID tag consumption in 2005, according to research firm IDTechEx, will be smartcards and payment key fobs. Bus and subway system access around the world is helping drive the demand, as are national ID card programs - the Chinese initiative to issue national ID cards to every adult has been pushed forward from 2010 to 2008, just in time for the Beijing Olympics. Also, the increasing deployments of contactless credit cards by major players Visa and MasterCard will have a major near-term impact on the amount of RFID tags demanded worldwide. New conclusions suggest that the market for RFID may currently be very different than what is assumed by many in the industry - tagging of cases and pallets for supply chain visibility remains a surprisingly small contributor to the overall consumption of RFID tags. Other less widely reported situations will continue to be leading drivers of demand for RFID technology, claims IDTechEx.

RFID used for realtime seat count at French Open

Realtime wireless RFID location technology was used recently at the 'French Open' tennis tournament to aid realtime seating allocations. IBM is a long running sponsor of the French Open, and both staff and visitors to the IBM booth used AeroScout 's active RFID-based Visibility System with IBM servers and software to help determine the location of on-site staff carrying Wi-Fi-enabled mobile phones.

Likewise, guests of IBM wearing small, battery-powered RFID tags were tracked through the system to show a realtime count of seat availability. According to Andris Berzins, vice president of marketing and business development for AeroScout: "The success of the AeroScout/IBM integrated location solution at the French Open demonstrates the unique value proposition of Wi-Fi-based visibility. We are delighted to have demonstrated how simple it is to install: the fully functional system was installed in under three days."

RFID ensures consumer comfort

Security systems at gates make many customers feel uncomfortable as it projects distrust. To improve their image, many storeowners are asking for inconspicuous, miniature EAS devices. Use of RFID proves merchandise ownership, provides inconspicuous identification and recognition, speeds check-out processes, saves shelf and floor space, and reduces supply-chain time. Meanwhile, anti-theft features enhance RFID. With standardisation of RFID technologies, wider recognition of the benefits of RFID tags, expected breakthroughs in recognition accuracy and system stability, and lower costs, RFID systems and traditional EAS systems will soon compete head-to-head.

RFID reads information quickly, has a high tolerance of directional error and exhibits low false or failed reading rates.

Flowers have also been tagged

Reportedly, 37 000 transactions are processed every day in the Dutch flower market. Attaching RFID tags to 100 000 flower baskets has improved transaction-processing speed, while providing accuracy rates of 99%. Cases like this are expected to propel demand, lowering system costs, while forming positive marketing and sales cycles.

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