New CB Marazine excerpts
1) A series of technical specifications for a personal smart card reader connected to a computer, the FINREAD standard has undergone compliance and interoperability tests with several card reader manufacturers. Given the positive results of this work, UBS Wealth Management & Business Banking, the foremost personal asset manager and the Swiss leader in consumer business and banking services, has decided to run a FINREAD pilot project. The project concerns a new secure solution based on a smart card with a certificate to provide access to the bank's home banking service.
The choice of the FINREAD solution was, in particular, dictated by the concern for maximum security for this application; the level of security will be further strengthened by the use of a bank smart card.
In the second half of 2003, UBS will launch the first phase of its FINREAD pilot project.
An initial pilot phase is planned for the second half of this year with a small sample of the bank's customers. It will be followed by a second phase that will then involve a panel of around 1,000 customers outside the bank.
UBS is considering offering its customers a multi-application card next year that can be read by a portable card reader using a "challenge-response" type procedure. This is in addition to the FINREAD solution adopted for the home banking application, which requires a higher level of security. According to the bank, these expected developments will be consolidated by the future creation of a Certification Authority for this standard
2)Since July, FINREAD has been the subject of a "feasibility model" by GIE SESAM-Vitale. Four FINREAD readers (from two different manufacturers) are being tested for two separate applications: updating the Vitale medical benefits card, and reading the patient's secure Vitale card via the health professional's card (CPS).
The aims of this model are to validate the sound technical operation of SESAM-Vitale applications on FINREAD card readers, guarantee increased data security and confidentiality (use of the SSL secure data encryption protocol), and test the interoperability of FINREAD card readers.
3)Cartes Bancaires will be present at this event during which Guillaume de Longeaux will present Embedded FINREAD, and security expert Claude Megglé will talk about getting the best out of the static data authentication (SDA) method offered with EMV in a session dedicated to POS terminals and ATMs.
As in previous years, e-Smart will include a series of conferences by international experts. This is an opportunity to review the smart card market trends and perspectives (slowing telecommunications market but growing identity, financial services, transport and security markets), to present the latest developments on regional markets, notably in the United States and India, as well as identification applications (such as the European eEpoch project). The current technological challenges in the area of payment terminal security will also be addressed. Alongside the conferences, companies from the smart card industry will give numerous demonstrations of their latest innovative applications.
