Identity, Security, Payments, Biometrics, Smart Cards and Authentication News

Beijing Olympic Reunion Center access controlled with biometric smart cards

Thursday, August 28, 2008

At every Olympic Games’ site the World Olympian Association (WOA) sets up an Olympic Reunion Center designed as a meeting place for past and present athletes as well as VIPs and special guests. At this year’s Olympics in Beijing security was a high priority for the center due to worries of terrorist activities surrounding the games and general concern for the athletes’ well-being. To properly control access to the center, the WOA looked tapped Artemis Solutions Group, a developer of identification verification products, to help design and implement new system.


With the Artemis designed system, as each guest arrived at the center for the first time they were issued a smart card containing encrypted fingerprint data on the individual as their means of entering the center throughout the games. To create the cards, Artemis had a system that used an Evolis Smart ID Card printer and their own BioCert Aegis ID System and smart card interface kit that enabled the biometric data of the card holder to be encoded and encrypted as the card was being printed.

Each time a cardholder accessed the reunion center, it required them to use the smart card they had been issued at a portable smart card reader which incorporated a decryption module, smart card reader, LCD screen and fingerprint reader. [end] 

HID Global has announced the successful completion of the world’s first university pilot of NFC smart phones carrying digital keys.

First announced in September, the pilot involved a select group of students and staff at Arizona State University using NFC-enabled smart phones equipped with HID’s Secure Identity Object (SIO) Technology. Participants could gain access to their residence halls and other secure access areas by tapping their handset against a reader embedded in the door and entering a PIN, rather than use their plastic campus card.

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Hitachi partnered with Turkey-based banking company Isbank to bring biometric identification authentication to roughly 3,400 ATMs in Europe.

While the new network of biometric ATMs, which utilize Hitachi’s finger vein scanning technology, is the largest in Europe, it is far from the largest worldwide where Japan has embraced the technology and installed more than 75,000 finger vein-based ATMs.

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The Ralph Carr Judicial Center in Denver, Colorado has selected AMAG Technology’s Symmetry Homeland V7 Security Management System,to provide integrated access control and security management solutions from HID Global.

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After a nearly three-year delay, the Algerian government has finally launched its biometric passport program.

Magharebia reports that the biometric passports, which contain a contactless smart card chip that holds a digitized photo, fingerprints and signature, were supposed to be released in 2009. But the documents were delayed due to complexities with the operation of the project and the need to thoroughly research and analyze other countries’ experiences with biometric passports.

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The Beijing Metro has deployed a new access control system that uses HID Global’s network access controllers and contactless readers.

HID is providing its VertX V1000 network access controller and iCLASS R10 readers for the new system, which enables control center staff to monitor and control access to a variety of facilities, including offices, electrical substations and parking lots, along the Metro’s 11-station Fangshan line.

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BadgePass and Digital Identification Solutions have integrated BadgePass’s Identity Manager credentialing software with Digital’s EDIsecure XID 8300 Retransfer Printer for single step smart card encoding and card issuance.

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