With the onset of terrorism and the global concern on every nation’s safety, biometrics is already being utilized in various countries, with the world’s superpower, the United States, leading the way.
In fact, in 2004, the US Congress enacted a roadmap for migration to contactless chip passports for its citizens and those of Visa Waiver Program countries, requiring over 27 administrations to deliver electronic passports to their citizens by October this year.
This explains why one has to personally go to the US embassy in Manila to secure a US visa or renew an expired one. The US government is updating its database through iris and fingerprint identification.
Biometrics – and the whole issue of identity and security – has become a worldwide phenomenon. It is sad to note that the Philippines seems to be lagging behind because not even its proposed national identification system has gained much public enthusiasm.
As the debates continue on whether the implementation of a national ID program can be considered an invasion of one’s privacy or a basic service of the government, different countries have already adopted a better way to deliver basic services to their peoples through the smart card technology, in different areas – government, public healthcare, retail, mass transit, finance and banking services and mobile connections.
A regular smart ID user can also utilize his intelligent card as he goes to work or returns home via the mass transit system by merely swiping his card in a device that automatically charges his fare.
Smart cards can also be used in various government transactions and healthcare programs. In companies, they can be utilized for various functions such as an ID card doubling as a security pass to one’s office or any restricted area within company premises.
As he goes shopping for new clothes at Suntec City or Raffles City along Orchard Road, Singapore’s shopping hub, or goes on a dinner date at popular Raffles Hotel or taste the popular Singapore Sling cocktail at the Long Bar, a card holder can also use his smart card, with its multiple functions, as a credit card, with reward points to a loyalty or frequent shopper program automatically inputted.
In the Philippines, the smart card is that small gold chip found in your mobile’s SIM (Subscriber Identification Module) card. It’s also that chip found in your Mercury Drug Suki Card or in the National Bookstore, SM and Rustan’s frequent shopper cards. Look into your wallet, and you will surely find one.
In other countries, the smart card technology is being used in credit and bank cards in an effort to combat various forms of fraud. In fact, Malaysia started its card migration for its credit and bank cards last year, doing away with the fraud-prone magnetic stripes.
In 2003, the Macau government’s Identification Department commissioned the distribution of multi-application, smart card-based identity cards to all of the 460,000 residents of the Chinese Special Administrative Region (SAR), targeted for completion by 2007.
Last year, Korea launched a mobile bank initiative that allows its citizens to perform bank-related activities such as money transfer and balance checking with their mobile handsets. All Korean telecommunication companies and banks are involved in this project which targets a customer base of 35 million. The mobile banking chip is based on GlobalPlatform card specifications and is embedded in Samsung, LG, Motorola, Pantech and Curitel handsets.
In October 2002, the Sultanate of Oman launched a GlobalPlatform smart card-based national ID program for its 2.7 million citizens. This is the first smart card-based citizen ID solution ever deployed in the Middle East.
"The smart card provides numerous advantages in terms of security and value-added services," he said.
"The forerunner of the smart card was the magnetic stripe card. It was used as a basic means of payment, establishing the standard dimensions of almost all of today’s plastic cards," he said. Cards are "smart" because they have an embedded memory chip or microprocessor where information and functionalities are stored, with far greater security.
Gemplus smart cards offers three major benefits to cardholders and issuers: security, intelligence, and convenience. The company was founded in 1988 just when the smart card technology was starting to be developed.
Chou said Gemplus now has 50 sales and marketing offices worldwide, four research and development centers, 16 personalization facilities and 10 manufacturing sites.
Gemplus smart cards help organizations, businesses and governments rely on solutions to limit fraud, verify transactions worth billion of dollars, safeguard communications and deal with demands for identification. According to Chou, Gemplus has sold over five billion smart cards, 656 million of them shipped in 2004.
Gemplus products and services range from memory and microprocessor cards for use in wireless communications, SIM cards and payment systems to a full range of associated software, middleware and server-based solutions.
A tour of the Gemplus headquarters and manufacturing plant here showed how smart cards are made: from mount and saw, die-attachments, wire boarding, potting, and auto-count packaging, to the final visual control processes.
Jean-Pierre Fantin, Gemplus vice president for regional marketing (Asia), said the plant produces 12,000 smart cards per hour for their many clients, which include Globe Telecom, Citibank and Visa International.
"The DND started its program for secure ID, and recently, it has been extended to all federal employees," Rob Brandewie, director of the US Department of National Defense’s Manpower Data Center, told NetWorks.
To address the issue of privacy intrusion, as what critics of a Philippine national ID system have raised, Brandewie cited the need to inform the public of the security which smart cards offer.
"I think governments want to be assured of three things: efficiency, and then low cost... and interoperability. A single card can operate in a number of venues. The third thing is security," he said. "This is where GlobalPlatform comes in."
"The concern about privacy always comes up, but the fact is in the world today, you are always asked for your identity whether you’re on a computer, whether you are traveling... and the ways that we do it are very often not secure. Right?" he said.
Brandewie added: "You hand someone your driver’s license, your passport. With the smart card, you have control over the release of the information... before the information really comes out."
The US official also allayed fears of misuse of a smart card-based national ID, saying, "The basic process of establishing identity is becoming a basic function of government."
"It’s something governments have to do really in order to operate securely," he said. "The card can be carried around. Well, the card can be implemented in many ways: in a central system where the government can have an overview, or it can be operated in a decentralized system... (There is) a lot of information derived from the card so the implementation of the system is more important, (that is) determining if it can be used or abused than the card itself."
Brandewie cited several factors that prompt various governments and the private sector to shift from magnetic stripe technology to the more efficient smart card.
He said the world has become increasingly more complex that face-to-face deals are replaced with cyber transactions, and identity theft is an emerging problem.
"Existing credentials can be faked and are available through the Internet... Business processes (have) not kept pace so technology must be employed to authenticate credentials," he said.
Brandewie added that identity is key to financial systems and logical and physical access.
In compliance with Homeland Security Presidential Decision 12, he revealed that more than six million common access cards had been issued as of April 1 this year. The card currently used is a 32K, and the US defense department is planning to move to a 64K GlobalPlatform Java card with dual interface.
GlobalPlatform specifications address security, interoperability, configuration, customization, issuance, acceptance, and management.
"GlobalPlatform is an effort to standardize the way of issuing, maintaining and managing smart card technology. (That’s) the reason why people got together like Mastercard, governments (such as the) US defense department and companies that issue cards... (to) find ways of getting the benefits of smart cards sooner, (and to make) the standards simpler," Lee said.
Lee said the smart card technology has not been fully introduced in the Philippines yet, although the country is a big market for SIM cards.
Apart from national ID purposes, Lee expressed hope that banks and financial institutions would finally be using smart cards to catch up with the migration from magnetic stripe cards to the use of microchips in credit and bank cards.
According to Bob Beer, chairman of GlobalPlatform, their strategy has been optimized through four guiding principles: setting up performance standards that will improve the functionality and operability of all components without hindering competition; reduce time to market; lower the cost to implement; and interoperability.
GlobalPlatform also wants to achieve the following:
• Establish GlobalPlatform as the standard single and multi-application smart card infrastructure;
• Drive broader adoption of GlobalPlatform standards and specifications in priority industries;
• Expand GlobalPlatform membership;
• Communicate, publicize and showcase GP standards, specifications and implementations; and
• Expand GlobalPlatform specifications over time to meet the target market and industry needs.
Meanwhile, Yu Chien Siang, of the Singapore Ministry of Home Affairs, revealed that the Singaporean government has allotted S$38 million from 2005 to 2009 for the implementation of the National Authentication Infrastructure (NAI).
The NAI concerns the application and use of the common biometrics identification infrastructure offering an "electronic bridge of trust" to empower secure applications for individuals.
Yu said the implementation of a secure ID for individuals will eventually allow governments to protect their borders by verifying the identities of airline and ship passengers as well as individuals accessing controlled or sensitive areas, among other things.
In times of crises such as the killer tsunami that hit several Asian countries last December, Yu said the use of smart ID cards can help governments establish identities of their citizens even without enough resources.
These can be implemented through national electronic ID cards, e-visas, foreigners’ cards, employee and company cards, and transport workers’ cards.
Considered as "high-end technology," smart cards store biometric data on irises or fingerprints, together with facial images.
Greg Pote, chairman of the Asia Pacific Card Association, said the smart card is also a good tool in fighting various ATM fraud, regarded as a "growing regional problem."
ATM fraud has prompted banks in Malaysia to subscribe to new financial smart card payment systems. The smart cards are used variably as credit, debit and bank cards, transport cards, SIM cards for mobile phones, retailers’ loyalty cards, and government-issued cards.
SIM cards remain to be the largest, most mature smart card segment in Asia, with China dominating the market with an estimated 300 million SIM cards distributed this year.
In Asia, Pote said smart cards are becoming familiar in Malaysia, Brunei, Macau, Hong Kong, and Thailand. Vietnam and India are also planning to use "contactless" technologies through the use of smart cards.
The use of next-generation biometric passports is being defined by the 188-member state International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO). The so-called "electronic passport," which the US currently uses, will contain an individual’s finger and facial biometrics.