re:ID Podcast

When buying a six-pack of beer it makes sense that an individual confirms that they are at least 21-years-old. But when the consumer shows a clerk the government-issued ID they are giving up address, date of birth and other information as well. In a perfect world the clerk would only see the age. Andrew Clement, a professor in the Faculty of Information at the University of Toronto, is trying to remedy this with the Prop ID research project. Prop ID means that the personal information provided is proportionate to what’s needed for the specific transaction. Only the necessary details are transmitted. This is also one of the core principals around the U.S. government's National Strategy for Trusted Identities in Cyberspace. Regarding ID’s Gina Jordan spoke with Clement about the project.

Payment card manufacturers have a set way of doing things. With near field communication on the horizon it could be seen as a disruption to some in the industry. The Datacard Group partnered with DeviceFidelity Inc. to offer the company's In2Pay suite of solutions that use microSD technology in smart phones for contactless payments. The end result is a mobile wallet customers can use at contactless point-of-sale terminals featuring debit, credit or prepaid accounts. Regarding ID's Gina Jordan spoke with Matt Stern, vice president of business development at Datacard about the partnership and what NFC will mean for card manufacturers.

There are a handful of drivers for adding biometric technology to mobile devices, says Alan Goode, founder of Goode Intelligence and author of "Mobile Phone Biometric Security Analysis and Forecasts 2011-2015." Many mobile phones are easy to break into, enterprises are enabling users to use their own mobile phones and NFC payments may require additional security. Goode predicts (http://www.thirdfactor.com/2012/02/23/report-mobile-biometrics-to-161m-by-2015) that mobile phone biometric security products and services generated more than $30 million in 2011 and that the market will grow to over $161 million in revenue by 2015. "These are not phones anymore," Goode says. "These are small computers which have access to a lot of private data and they're accessing some sensitive networks. So these are devices which are being used all the time. We have them in our hands all the time. We're glued to them, you know, we have a blue glare on our faces as we're walking around about town because we're constantly updating Twitter or constantly looking at Facebook and texting. So there's much, much greater risk of these devices being lost or stolen. As authentication vendors look to enhance their solutions, I would think there would be greater use of biometric."

EMV is the future of payments but MasterCard doesn't want to stop there, says Colin McGrath, vice president of development in U.S. Markets at the payments company. "We very much see this path and this evolution as really about enabling the next generation of payments," McGrath tells Regarding ID's Gina Jordan. "It's about providing a globally interoperable secure platform for people to be able to make the investments necessary to enable that next generation." The future isn't just about putting chips onto plastic cards, he explains. "But also, you want to have a framework that encourages growth and the adoption of new technologies, and we feel that we've done that. So, it's not about one technology kind of supplanting or replacing another, it's a recognition that there are a variety of different technology needs and considerations, a variety of different business approaches."

Visa made waves in August when it unveiled a road map to move the U.S. to EMV and then again in January when the company said that the country's deployment wouldn't be chip and PIN. Stephanie Ericksen, head of Authentication Product Integration at Visa USA, talk to Regarding ID's Gina Jordan about the move and why the U.S. will have a different solution than what other typically associate with EMV. "One thing that we're trying to clarify is there are many countries around the world that have adopted EMV chip technology, but it's not chip and PIN," Ericksen says.

viaForensics revealed some interesting information about Google Wallet. While the system is generally viewed as secure it still does leave some personal data unencrypted. Regarding ID's Gina Jordan spoke with Andrew Hoog, chief investigative officer at viaForensics, about the analysis the company did on the system. While Google made some changes to the software after the report was released, Hoog says more needs to be done. "There was a lot of information left on the device," he says. "If somebody was trying to take over an identity, they could use this information to either pose as you or call you and act like they're the credit card company and try to get you to release the additional information," he adds.

With near field communication on the horizon and more handsets hitting the market that include the technology, what about the mobile wallet? The software the enables the chip on the phone to perform various tasks is necessary for anything to happen in the NFC ecosystem. The Mobey Forum released a white paper that examines the mobile wallet, what it is and what it does. (Download it here: http://www.mobeyforum.org/Press-Documents/White-papers) Gerhard Romen, member of the board of directors at the Mobey Forum and director of Mobile Financial Services at Nokia, discusses the report and why the mobile wallet is more than just payments. Romen also gives his take on Verizon's decision not to enable Google Wallet in the new Samsung handsets in favor of its soon-to-be-released ISIS.

There are many discussions surrounding the multiple user names and passwords individuals must remember to gain access to accounts. Countries across the globe are investigating ways to make it easier for people to securely access information. In Canada, SecureKey Technologies will be enabling individuals to use bank cards for access to government sites, says Andre Boysen, executive vice president of Digital Identity and Authentication Services at the company.

"The challenge for governments in Canada and the U.S. for that matter is that consumers don't deal with the government that often, so when you get a special purpose government account to interact with you've often forgotten the user ID and password since the last time you've used it," Boysen says. "So the government's idea here is really to take advantage of a credential that you have already and make it easier for you to get online with using that credential rather than having a special purpose one just for government."

After three years as a pilot program, Global Entry is moving to permanent status. John Wagner, executive director of Admissibility and Passenger Programs with U.S. Customs and Border Protection, fill listeners in on the program and how it works. Wagner also talks about the program's reciprocity with other countries and how it's even translating to the domestic trusted traveler program.

Mobile devices are poised to become the ID credential of the future. In a recent video, Blackboard Transact president David Marr shared his views on mobile platforms in higher ed and the impacts on campus card offices. CR80News' Chris Corum discussed the topic with Marr in this podcast.

He describes the mobile device as "the virtual front door of the institution," but he stresses that you can't just leave that door propped open. "The credential that is the key to opening that door will reside in the campus card office," he says.

When it comes to service delivery on the modern campus, Marr explains, "geographic boundaries of a campus are no longer the primary driver, mobile devices and applications have blurred these boundaries."

He suggests that campus card administrators get immersed in the conversations about mobile on their campus. "Let IT know that campus card solution providers are moving the credential to the phone," he says, "I am confident that will get their attention."

In the video, Marr highlights several exciting mobile initiatives underway at campuses across the country including Stanford University and University of Washington.

To hear more, check out the video, Mobile: The New Student ID: http://www.blackboard.com/Platforms/Transact/Resources/Videos.aspx.