OTI Teams Up to Receive a $17 Million Contract to Provide Solutions and Systems for Electronic Identification Product

On Track Innovations Ltd. announced today that it has signed a contract for the supply, transfer, maintenance and operation of an electronic identification related product based on OTI's Magna(TM) platform. OTI has teamed up with a reputable system integrator that will be responsible for project management and local operation in the country. The contract provides for an initial three-year period and minimum guaranteed amount of $17 million, starting in 2010. The project is funded based on a Build-Operate-Transfer (BOT) model.

As part of the contract, OTI will supply its end-to-end solution, based on its proprietary state-of-the-art ID Registry Magna(TM) platform. OTI's system, which will be deployed nationwide, provides advanced software for ID management, bundled with secure biometric contactless cards. OTI will also provide mobile enrollment stations, and will incorporate a biometric Automatic Fingerprint Identification System (AFIS).

OTI's solution supports both online and offline communication, thereby allowing every citizen, from cities to rural areas to register, regardless of the area's communication infrastructure. The solution is designed to provide maximum accuracy and security while being user friendly.

Oded Bashan, Chairman and CEO of OTI, stated, "This project is in line with OTI's strategy to focus on solutions and projects that yield recurring revenues. OTI's Magna(TM) system demonstrates our breadth of secured ID solutions. OTI's end-to-end Magna(TM) based solution, complemented by the company's knowledge and experience, allows countries to access a quick and cost effective path to implement secured identification and verification needs, regardless of the country's size and telecommunication infrastructure."

Banner Health Partners with CBORD to Develop Model for Sharing Technology

The CBORD Group announced today that Banner Del E. Webb Medical Center, in Sun City West, AZ, is slated to go live this month with CBORD's Room Service solution. For Banner Health, this is the fifth facility to support the CBORD Room Service installation through its franchise model of sharing new technology.

Christine McSweeney, who is currently an associate administrator at Banner Del E. Webb, is a champion of this enterprise model, and it was while she was director of Culinary Services at Banner Gateway, in Gilbert, AZ, which opened in 2006, that she took the lead in implementing Room Service there. McSweeney realized that while incorporating Room Service was important for Gateway, incorporating it as a franchise model could result in a huge savings system wide, and thus her vision of leveraging software across all Banner Facilities was born.

McSweeney and her team built the database with this franchise model in mind. Banner Gateway became the flagship hospital for launching Room Service, and its success included improved patient satisfaction scores and cost savings that resulted from increasing efficiencies. Patient safety was also improved due to the built-in dietary compliance feature.

With the infrastructure in place to reproduce the success of Banner Gateway's implementation of Room Service, the Gateway team shared their database with Banner Baywood Medical Center and Banner Heart Hospital, both in Mesa, AZ,

As Banner Del E. Webb gets ready to roll out Room Service, much of the legwork has already been done, the franchise model is in place, and all that remains is to tailor Room Service to this facility. Banner Boswell Medical Center, in Sun City, will become the next hospital to join the enterprise model. Banner Thunderbird Medical Center, in Glendale, AZ, will come online with the CBORD system in 2010.

VeriFone Announces VeriShield Protect for EMV Smart Cards

VeriFone Holdings announced that its VeriShield Protect end-to-end encryption solution for card payment security will be available for use with the EMV smart card standard and will also support contactless payments. First introduced in the U.S. to help merchants and acquirers secure cardholder information and comply with PCI data security requirements, VeriShield Protect is now being expanded for use worldwide in support of all card payment types. VeriShield Protect with full EMV and contactless capability is now being introduced in the UK and for other regions beginning in spring 2010.

“With Visa International and MasterCard now both mandating global compliance with the PCI Data Security Standard by the end of 2010, the authentication and anti-card skimming benefits of EMV is no longer sufficient—merchants and acquirers also need to protect the integrity of cardholder data,” said Jeffrey Wakefield, VeriFone vice president and general manager, Global Security Solutions. “VeriShield Protect provides that data security element, and its unique format-preserving encryption technology makes it easy to implement within the existing infrastructure.”

VeriShield Protect eliminates usable cardholder data from a retailer's POS applications, networks and servers by encrypting it end to end, so that even in the event of a security breach no usable data could be compromised and any stored data is secure. Real-time monitoring of payment transactions ensures that organizations can respond immediately to mitigate any attempted breach.

ACI Worldwide Announces Alliance With Bell ID to Provide Smart Card Solutions

ACI Worldwide announced that it has entered into an exclusive agreement with Bell ID for ACI to license Bell ID's solutions for smart card management to financial markets and retailers around the world. As part of this agreement, ACI will market and license the ANDiS suite of products, which will continue to be developed by Bell ID from its Dutch headquarters.

The Bell ID products include the ANDiS Card and Application Management System (CAMS) which supports all of the lifecycle phases of smart card management, including embossing file import, data preparation, personalization, EMV script management, and central or in-branch issuance. The ANDiS Key Management System (or KMS) allows users to define, maintain, and store cryptographic keys.

The ANDiS Script Delivery System (or SDS) supports the distribution of scripts to control or change card attributes remotely. Also included in the ANDiS suite is the ANDiS I-PIN application which supports PIN changes and synchronization over the Internet and Bell ID's NFC mobile solutions. The combination of these solutions enables organizations to issue applications on smart cards, tokens and phones and manage every step of their lifecycle.

The cooperation will fund significant product enhancements including interoperability of the ANDiS suite with ACI's Agile Payments Solution framework, to provide a seamless end-to-end solution for the payments industry.

Gemalto PIV Card for Enhanced U.S. Government Security Doubles Memory Capacity

Gemalto, the world leader in digital security, today announced that its large memory Personal Identity Verification (PIV) card is now listed on the General Services Administration (GSA) Approved Product List (APL). Gemalto has already begun volume deliveries of the card for the U.S. federal government’s PIV program. The card has already received FIPS 201 and FIPS 140-2 certifications. The Gemalto PIV Card is dual contact/contactless technology built on the JavaCard platform. It doubles the storage capacity of today’s PIV cards, a highly demanded feature in the government sector.

“Our U.S. government customers asked us to develop this very large memory card to give them more space to implement stronger digital security measures,” said Neville Pattinson, vice president of Standards and Government Affairs, Gemalto North America. “Today we are providing a PIV card with memory capacity to handle larger encryption keys and store multiple identity certificates. The larger memory will help to future-proof PIV credentials, because it offers the room to add other applications downstream, such as biometrics, extending its useful life.”

The Gemalto PIV card allows the identities of government employees and contractors to be verified electronically quickly, while resisting any fraud, tampering or counterfeiting. Already capable of secure storage of cardholder fingerprints, the card also supports, through its open platform, adding new applications, such as biometric match-on-card, if desired.