Airports in Barcelona and Madrid in Spain have installed self-service kiosks available for use by holders of Spanish citizen ID cards or European Community electronic passports, according to a Pro Security Zone article.

The kiosks, which are expected to relieve long lines for those traveling into the country, require a positive scan of both a cardholder’s face and fingerprint. 

HID Global introduced a new line of direct-to-card FARGO printer/encoders. The new product line is made up of three models designed to meet the needs of small organizations to global enterprises. This is the first new line of printers introduced since HID purchased Fargo.

The line consists of the DTC1000 entry-level printer for small organizations; the professional-level DTC4000 printer for small- to medium-size organizations with more security and scalability requirements; and the advanced, DTC4500 professional printer for large corporations and government organizations with high-volume needs, says Ryan Park, senior product marketing manager for secure issuance at HID. 

Entrust Inc. has been selected to deploy its security solutions for Finland’s Population Register Centre. After implementing its Extended Access Control (EAC) e-passport solution more than two-years ago, Entrust has begun deployment of its Single Point of Contact (SPOC) infrastructure for e-passports.

This SPOC technology is the standard method for certificate management between countries for support of EAC-enabled e-passports, which enables a country like Finland, with this system, to communicate directly between SPOCs for international EAC certificate requests and responses. 

The August meeting of the influential Government Smart Card Interagency Advisory Board (IAB) was recently held in Washington D.C. FIPS201.com was on hand to cover the event and has provided, as a service to the IAB and the smart card community, an audio recording of the presentations. Click on the link below to access a list of audio and accompanying PowerPoint slides (in pdf format).

Visit FIPS201.com to hear the presentations and view the slides.  

3M and Cogent Inc. announced that they have entered into a agreement for 3M’s acquisition of Cogent Inc. for approximately $943 million, or $10.50 per share.

Cogent Inc. provides finger, palm, face and iris biometric systems for governments, law enforcement agencies and commercial enterprises. The agreement provides for a subsidiary of 3M to commence a tender offer to purchase all outstanding shares of Cogent Systems within ten business days. 

The redesigned UK passport has been released and features improved security features and iconic images from across the country.

The new 10-year passport will start being issued in October, with pages of the passport containing well-known UK scenes, including the White Cliffs of Dover, the Gower Peninsula, Ben Nevis and the Giant’s Causeway. 

Investment needed to improve logical, physical infrastructure

by Salvatore D’Agostino, IDmachines

The identity, credentialing and access management effort on the part of the CIO Council is a next step to realize the goals of HSPD-12. It takes FIPS 201 technology and policy and applies procedures to the identity, credential and access categories, hence management. Not coincidentally, in parallel, are President Obama’s National Strategy for Trusted Identities in Cyberspace and the Department of Commerce’s efforts on innovation in cybersecurity, innovation and Internet policy.

The federal Identity, Credential and Access Management (ICAM) part B work by the CIO Council is coming—maybe as soon as this fall—along with a revamp of the Federal PKI. The council has reached out to industry where a good dialog is taking place.