The Canadian Visa vendor Home Trust has selected Gemalto to manage its migration to EMV smart payment cards. Up until now the company has supplied only magnetic strip payment cards. With the support of Gemalto, Home Trust will begin issuing the new cards through pilot programs in Ontario.

The hope of Home Trust is to completely covert to the EMV. The selection of Gemalto comes with microprocessor payment cards as well as data preparation and personalization. In addition Gemalto is providing training on EMV conversion to Home Trust associates.

Recyclable and compostable bio-sourced SIM card was launched by SFR on trial basis. This was announced by world’s leading digital security provider, Gemalto. With more than 20 million mobile subscribers, SFR is one of the leading mobile operators in France.

The launch of this bio-sourced SIM card demonstrates the operator’s commitment to introduce innovative products in the market. It is also the company’s policy to reduce the impact on the environment due to its activities. Bio-plastics material that is derived from plants such as corn, potato starch or sugarcane is utilized for the manufacture of these SIM card body. It is easily compostable and recyclable and no toxic fumes are emitted during its incineration.

Eco-friendly products in Gemalto’s expanded portfolio are utilized by customers such as telecom, banking and governments throughout the world. Gemalto’s eco-friendly product portfolio demonstrates the company’s commitment to reduce its impact on the environment. The bio-sourced SIM card is part of this portfolio.

Philippe Vallée, Executive Vice President, Telecommunication Business Unit, Gemalto, said that both SFR and Gemalto have a common goal to introduce new innovative eco-friendly products in the market. Bio-sourced cards will be distributed by SFR in spring 2010.

Gemalto, the world leader in digital security, today announced a new solution enabling commuters to use their mobile phones as e- tickets in MIFARE DESFire* infrastructures. Gemalto achieved the world’s first implementation of a transport application compliant with the DESFire specifications in a SIM or UICC card, and will be presenting this innovation on its booth (8A102).

This innovation will enable commuters to use their NFC (”Near Field Communications”) mobile phone as an e-ticket, as simply as any other contactless travelcard. A high level of security is ensured, as the tickets are stored in the SIM card and the application meets the stringent security requirements of the DESFire specifications.

NFC technology in transport dramatically enriches the commuter experience by adding the mobile phone’s keypad and screen to the travelcard and by connecting it to the online world. NFC-based services are part of Gemalto’s Trusted Services Management (TSM) dedicated offering of solutions and services. It enables transport operators to offer travelers the ability to purchase and recharge their transport tickets, with the convenience of the mobile phone.

“Mobile phones have become an essential part of our daily life and mobile e-ticketing perfectly illustrates the trend by simplifying access to public transport,” commented Rémi De Fouchier, Senior Vice President, Trusted Services Management at Gemalto. “With this new solution, Gemalto broadens the use of mobile phones as travel passes in cities equipped with a DESFire infrastructure, enabling more and more commuters across the world to enjoy an enriched service.” Note to editors DESFire is an automatic fare collection technology which provides 3DES (Triple Data Encryption Standard) and AES (Advanced Encryption Standard) cryptographic algorithms. To date, it has been deployed in 40 cities across the world.

Gemalto (Euronext NL0000400653 GTO), the world leader in digital security, today announced that Bulgaria has started deploying its smart cards to secure access to personal health records for the country’s military personnel and their family.
Gemalto has vast experience in providing solutions for eHealth, and has proved itself as a strong and reliable partner in Slovenia, Germany, France, Finland, the UK, Gabon, Algeria, Mexico, etc.
In Bulgaria, Gemalto delivered double-slot readers and smart cards with the associated middleware to KIM-2000, a local company specialized in eHealth projects. KIM-2000 acts as prime contractor for the electronic health record system commissioned by the Military Medical Academy*. This innovative system optimizes medical treatments, simplifies and modernizes procedures and increases security for accessing health information.
The Gemalto card is compliant with the Identification Authentication Signature (IAS) European standard to ensure the highest level of security for accessing personal electronic health records. The patient and the healthcare professional simultaneously insert their own card into the double-entry Gemalto reader and type in their PIN code to enable viewing or modifying of the medical file, which is stored on a highly secure IT infrastructure. The patient can also view their personal data online, using the Gemalto reader and card to authenticate themselves.
The personal electronic health record is a complete electronic archive of the patient’s medical history. It stores all existing medical documentation, including laboratory tests and results, X-ray pictures, all visual tests, electronic prescriptions, etc. It also contains the patient’s blood group, allergies and genetic predisposition to diseases, health check ups, surgical interventions and all useful medical information. The personal electronic health record enables healthcare professionals to immediately access a patient’s medical data and therefore, make more accurate decisions, especially in emergency situations, for which there is a special section in the electronic health record, containing the most important relevant information.
“For securing our system, we needed a smart card that meets the stringent requirements of international and European standards,” commented Kalcho Hinov, Chairman of the Board, KIM-2000. “Gemalto’s European Standard-compliant IAS solution ensures trust and confidence and enables smoother, more efficient interaction between patients and healthcare professionals.”
“The implementation of an electronic health record system is a highly innovative project and Gemalto is proud to contribute to this venture alongside KIM-2000,” added Ari Bouzbib, Senior Vice President Identity and Government Programs at Gemalto. “Through this initiative, Gemalto’s digital security technology proves to be a key enabler to next-generation eHealth programs. These are intended to deliver optimized treatment for each patient with utmost security, while protecting the privacy of personal data.”

A date representation software bug, the kind that didn’t hit in the year 2000, has caused problems for holders of millions of German credit card and automatic teller machine cards.

The German Savings Banks and Giro Association (DSGV) has issued a statement (in German) outlining that the problem hit as German card users tried to conduct transactions in the New Year. According to DSGV some 20 million ATM cards and 3.5 million credit cards are affected.

The card holders are being advised to carry cash as well as their cards in case the cards do not work. But as in most cases they need the cards to get cash from ATMs the advice could be seen as problematic.

Gemalto NV (Amsterdam, The Netherlands), the descendent company of chip-in-card pioneer Gemplus, more or less confessed to being responsible for the problem when it said that it is a major supplier to German banks and has been working on investigating and fixing the problem since it first came to light on Sunday (Jan. 3).

Oberthur Technologies SA (Levallois-Perret, France) said that cards that it had manufactured were not impacted and continue to function normally. Banking cards with chip modules from Giesecke & Devrient GmbH are also working properly. “No card with a G&D chip module has caused any difficulties at ATMs or points of sale,” the compay said, in a statement.

Gemalto said it is working with German banks to develop a “corrective process” that would avoid the replacement of the affected cards and that some of the cards are now being accepted by ATMs and point-of-sale terminals. Gemalto payment cards issued for other countries are not affected, the company said.

“We are fully focused on minimizing the inconvenience for the cardholders. As a partner, we will of course meet our contractual obligations, and continue to support our clients,” said Olivier Piou, chief executive officer of Gemalto, in a statement. “We trust that we will promptly deploy a solution with our German customers to return to full normal operation.”

Some estimates have put the cost of replacing the cards at up to $350 million, depending on how many cards must be replaced. It is not yet clear how much compensation German banks and Gemalto will be liable for because of the bug.

Gemalto is a major supplier of chip-in-card products, such as subscriber identification modules (SIM), Universal Integrated Circuit Card (UICC) in mobile phones, smart banking cards, smart card access badges, electronic passports, and USB tokens for online identity protection, to governments, wireless operators, banks and enterprises. The company had 2008 annual revenues of 1.68 billion euro (about $2.4 billion).