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[garth] 10/5/2006 15:24

Major news ;0)



DYOR

[garth] 09/5/2006 13:02

ANGER AS SCOTLAND FACES BIG BROTHER I.D. CARDS

(Daily Mail Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge)SCOTS could be issued with ID cards storing details of every aspect of their lives under plans being considered by the Scottish Executive.

Hundreds of thousands of Scots have already been issued with the Citizens' National Entitlement Card - a microchipped card that carries the holder's name and photo.

The cards are used to access free bus or coach travel, but there are plans to link them to a central database.

This would give the Executive access to such details as people's travel movements, gym visits and reading habits. There are fears that the system could be expanded to include other information such as NHS records and benefits payments.

[garth] 08/5/2006 23:02

This piece too on road tolling, a more powerful ISAM and confirmation of the cost per unit:

ITSO & ROAD TOLLING
ITSO was specifically created
to handle road tolling, as well
as interoperable travel
products. It also has a secure
Stored Value product suitable
both, as a national or operator
specific purse.
For a road tolling scheme the
in-car and roadside unit would
both be treated as part of a
POST, with the ISAM residing
in the road-side unit, securely
communicating with the in-car
unit with its ITSO card and
reader, by a secure protocol
and interface.
The ITSO specification
requires complete end-to-end
transaction processing to be
complete in less than 200mS.
This is achievable because the
ISAM runs at up to 5Mhz, and
has 4MB of storage allowing
over 300k typical transactions
per hour. A new ISAM is in
preparation with even higher
specification. The road tolling
IPE would not be seen as a
particularly high demand
product on the ISAM. The
ITSO process is loss-less, and
includes anti-tear with a
transient ticket log to support
check-in/check-out tolling as
well as pay-on-entrance or
exit.
ITSO also supports a range of
media, ranging from Phillips
Ultralite and Innovision Jewel,
to secure cards such as
Phillips Desfire and generic
Microprocessor cards such as
JCOP30. To date we have
over 25 different cards/media
either approved or certified
through our testing and
certification service.
Details of our Road Tolling
product entity (TYP26) can be
found in Part 5 of our
Specification, which is on our
web site www.itso.org.uk . To
gain access to the Security
elements of our specification
(Part 8), your company will
need to complete an NDA.
This can be obtained from
[e-mail] .
The ITSO Specification is free
for use throughout the world,
but does have Crown
Copyright. Any copies used in
other schemes must give
reference to this copyright.
The ITSO SAM is also
available for sale for use
outside the UK; the cost is
currently about Euro100 per
unit.

[bonty] 08/5/2006 21:49

From today's UK-Analyst report:
"Also boosted by news of new contracts were shares in Advanced Smartcard, which added 0.25p to 4.25p. The smartcard technology said it had been awarded new contracts worth in excess of 700,000 pounds over the next 12 months. The new contracts included further business with subsidiaries of The Royal Bank of Scotland and also with ITI Techmedia, a company set up with the support of the Scottish Executive to drive Scotland's ambitious plans to identify and commercialise valuable technology-based intellectual assets."

Nice to know somebody's noticed.

[bonty] 08/5/2006 16:07

Excellent news today and looking good for the future, bought a few more this am.
Shame about the large spread though.
B.

[garth] 08/5/2006 15:07

y/e sept 30th

Kind regards,

G.

[wjccghcc] 08/5/2006 10:58

Thanks Garth. Year end what month?

[colsmith] 08/5/2006 09:58

Extract from M82 - "The contracts will develop further AST's business in the areas of secure smartcard transport ticketing and anti-counterfeiting activity."

Clearly better fraud protection needed - Shell (and maybe others ?) have stopped using PIN transaction temporaily due to fraud thru PIN pad. Also B&Q and TSCO still not using card reader (still swiping) although perversly still want the PIN. Customers of course take the hit if later fraud as PIN used! Just seems to confrim Chip and PIN is an intermediate solution. Market for much more bullet proof anti fraud is there as contract implied. Fiscal details for the company look profit boosting.

[garth] 08/5/2006 09:53

WJ,

Revenue £1.95M
Gross Profit £1.16M
Admin £1m
Op profit pre tax £154K
Profit £114K

And we are still awaiting announcement on a £3M contract.......

Calypso looks to be worth £1.5M+ IMO.

DYOR.

G.

[wjccghcc] 08/5/2006 08:36

garth, do you know their revenues from last year?

[wjccghcc] 08/5/2006 08:35

garth, do you know their revenues from last year?

[garth] 08/5/2006 07:40

...or maybe :0) £700K contract wins announced......

[garth] 08/5/2006 07:37

Contract Win

RNS Number:5485C
Advanced Smartcard Technologies plc
08 May 2006


ADVANCED SMARTCARD TECHNOLOGIES PLC ANNOUNCES
#700,000 NEW CONTRACT SUCCESSES

Advanced Smartcard Technologies (RIC: SMRT/L), ("AST") the Scottish based
software group specialising in smartcard technology, through its wholly owned
subsidiary Ecebs Limited, is delighted to announce that the Company has been
awarded new contracts worth in excess of #700,000 over the next 12 months.

The new contracts include further business with subsidiaries of The Royal Bank
of Scotland Group PLC and also with ITI Techmedia, a company set up with the
support of the Scottish Executive to drive Scotland's ambitious plans to
identify and commercialise valuable technology-based intellectual assets.

The contracts will develop further AST's business in the areas of secure
smartcard transport ticketing and anti-counterfeiting activity.

David Braddock, Managing Director of AST commented,

" We are delighted to win these new contracts and extremely pleased that our
successful technology development in the highly specialised sectors of transport
ticketing and anti-counterfeiting continues to be adopted by such high calibre
companies. This is a further vindication of the strength of our developing
smartcard technology and processes.

" Since listing in December 2005 we have made significant progress in developing
our technology. It is excellent news that our development capability has been
recognised by high profile clients in Scotland including Royal Bank of
Scotland."

[bonty] 05/5/2006 13:36

...or maybe not.

[bonty] 05/5/2006 12:19

ooh! a bit of activity here at last.

[garth] 02/5/2006 20:26

Agreed Colsmith and the RBS trials (a SMRT partner) illustrate the interest....

[colsmith] 02/5/2006 10:38

garth, thanks interesitng. Anyhow a few comments - most of which I guess those interested in this market are aware of. Re:

""Protecting against fraud would be a much bigger challenge as there is a huge difference between stealing Tube fares and real money," he said."

Its clear that credit cards and others need a better authentication protocol between human owner and card. Currently chip and pin do that for card to termanl/host computer. The only authentication of card to user is the PIN which is at best reasonably secure for example if someone sees the PIN (and its easy in shops) they can mug the users and get the card. So its obviuos the way to go for SMART cards is a biometric authrication protocol such as the card is invalidated if handled by someone other than the owner immediatley before a transaction. One interesitng way to do this could be - the card stores a photo of the owner and at the terminal a camera input is used to check the users. Facial recognition software is fairly well advanced! Or a fingerprint reader on the card! Etc. Both of these are viable with current technolgy but of course need industry commitment to roll out. But SMART cards are the necessary enabler.

On Tube fares and real money - money on the card is a tad better than fivers in your wallet provided there is a quick method for a user whose card has been stolen to report such and something like the hot card file servcie operated by RTD is in place. The technolgy is there even before effective user - card authentication to stop a card quickly (even in the federated banking system) but it requires organisations to support it.

Short term integrated credit, bank and transport card seems sensible. Users dont want multiple cards they want multiple applications on the card to give more room in the wallet. Cards that can be updated and extended with new applications (add credit to transport etc, or add a 2nd credit card)is the direction from users although most I guess haven't thought about this yet.

SMRT software enables all this of course and has all the processing power and storage for a photo or fingerprint system and multiple applications and is secure on the card to terminal/Host (ITSO standard compliant). The solution is there for a very secure multi card, the problem is there - the finacial market is the link between the two but it is clearly moving in the right direction.

[garth] 02/5/2006 07:30

Oyster shelving electronic purse apps for now:


But this report emphasizes the need for greater security (which ITSO/multefile can offer) and the possible move to shared multiple application cards including EMV - all of which Multefiles offers.......


TfL drops proposal to expand Oyster card use
>By Sharlene Goff
>Published: May 1 2006 03:00 | Last updated: May 1 2006 03:00
>>
Transport for London has abandoned initial expansion plans for its pre-pay Oyster card after failing to agree terms with a financial partner.

The transport agency had hoped to roll out a service this year that would have enabled passengers to use their Oyster cards - currently used on the London Underground, buses, and some trains - to buy low-value goods such as newspapers, coffee and sandwiches with "electronic money" that would be loaded on to the card in advance.

But the transport agency said that setting up a link with a bank or financial services partner had so far proved too expensive.

Will Judge, director of the e-money project, said: "There is clear demand for a contactless 'e-purse' but the difficulty is building a system that is lower-cost than the current credit card systems so merchants will consider the charges when compared with cash."

Last year, Transport for London advertised to find a Financial Services Authority-regulated partner that could provide and integrate the technology for the new e-money system.

The group held discussions with several groups, including Barclays, RBS, Paypal and a number of consortiums made up of companies including JPMorgan, the US bank, BBVA, the Spanish bank, and Octopus, Hong Kong's electronic currency card.

Transport for London said it had not known what to expect in terms of what new technology would be required and that it had proved uneconomical to push forward with its original proposals.

But the group said it was still interested in linking Oyster card to electronic money in the future.

"There are several possible models based on the idea that organisations could co-operate in putting two or more applications on a single card.

"For example, Oyster could sit alongside a payment application like a chip and pin credit card," said Mr Judge.

He believes that there is a significant market for paying with Oyster cards at newsagents, public houses, parking machines, fast-food outlets and supermarkets.

"It gets rid of problems with not having enough change and reduces queues in shops," Mr Judge said.

Oyster also has a base of 5m users to tap into.

But Tim Jones, a consultant to Simpay, a mobile payments platform, said it would be a tough market for TfL to penetrate.

Mr Jones said the wider use of the Oyster card would require a significant increase in the level of security encryption.

"Protecting against fraud would be a much bigger challenge as there is a huge difference between stealing Tube fares and real money," he said.

He added that although cards were replacing cash as a means of payment at a rapid rate, in the past the use of transport cards to pay for other goods had not proved that popular.

"Even in Hong Kong, where the Octopus card has been successful, 80 per cent of its use is for journeys, while only 20 per cent is from transactions made in shops," he said.



DYOR

G.

[colsmith] 28/4/2006 09:30

News clip last night with Tony Blair and Ken Livingstone using smart cards to leave London UG station. A mere touch of the reader without stopping! Beats the paper fumbling and shows the leaders have experienced the benefits. I suppose to paraphrase - "this card is leaving the station" driven by cost benefits to operators and to users in queue reduction. I wonder when RYANAIR will start use?

[garth] 25/4/2006 13:53

Posted up some stuff on the other thread about Calypso - more relevent here really. Calypso is a European smart ticketing standard that is in the final throws of ITSO certification. Once it is ITSO certified it will require an ITSO Security Module (ISAM) to cover every transaction. As I understand it that will mean every Calypso reader and back-office needing an ISAM...... And we know who exclusively supplies ISAMs..... By my reckoning that equates to a roughly £1.5M contract for Ecebs simply to convert current terminals - without any back offices...

Calypso is widespread:

In 14 countries, more than 40 cities
More than 10 million contactless cards
30 000 terminals in service
In the largest intermodal networks in the world (Paris, Lisbon, ...)

[garth] 23/4/2006 15:48

Pilot ends in June, with this statement made with the original announcement:

"It is hoped, in time, that the card will extend to the transport arena as well, enabling bus, train and potentially taxi travel to be conducted on a cashless basis with additional benefits for travelling other than to and from school.

John McKernan, Deputy Director of the Northern Ireland eGovernment Unit said: "This is a tremendous opportunity for the youth in the Lisburn area to participate in what can only be described as a unique and exciting experiment. If successful, I fully expect that this pilot scheme will pave the way for a province-wide card to be implemented in a year's time that represents a truly joined-up component of the OnlineNI e-government strategy."

[garth] 23/4/2006 15:46

Here's the link to the Ecebs website for the Irish pilot:

October 2005 - MyCard Lisburn

Following a tender, Ecebs Multefile technology has been selected for a consortium run by the CARA Group to run a pilot Smart Card scheme in eight secondary schools in the Lisburn area of Northern Ireland.

The pilot forms part of the Online NI e-Government strategy being managed by the Northern Ireland eGovernment Unit within the Office of the First Minister and Deputy First Minister.
Under the pilot scheme, which will launch in October 2005 and run until June 2006, approximately 6,500 pupils at the eight schools will be issued with photographic smart cards each containing a microchip which will carry data and an electronic purse enabling them to pay for school meals, borrow library books, and use leisure and sports facilities within the local area.

The core use of the card, called MyCard, is to enable pupils to carry out day-to-day transactions without the need to carry cash. Among the benefits is a reduction of the incidence of bullying, and the removal of the stigma attached to those pupils who are in receipt of state benefits. MyCards will look the same for all pupils, but the source of funding may be different depending on the reason for issue.

Accourt, Infineer and Identifile, all of who have been involved in implementing other government projects in the past, also back the consortium.

Multefile is the software that makes the chips in smart cards work together with the software on terminals that the smartcards use. Multefile enables card issuers to design, implement and change one or more application themselves



Cara have since been acquired by BT. That make BT an Ecebs partner:

BT IRELAND ACQUIRES THE CARA GROUP, A MARKET-LEADING IT SERVICES COMPANY

[garth] 21/4/2006 19:31

WJ,

The ITSO standard is owned by the member organisations - not the Government, but the Government have backed it's development with £millions. Ecebs have benefited from that development funding. The rapid increase in 2008 is the point at which development funding is set to make way for royalties. That may indeed slip, but it is quite clear from the recent railf franchise tender that the Government expects Oyster roll-out by 2009 and Oyster/ITSO interoperability before then. Its in the interests of those organisations to use it because it saves money and it is in the interests of the Government because it simplifies Public Transportation and local authority operation. Local authorities have been told that they have to adopt it.

Ecebs get paid per ISAM by the looks of things - what I don't know is whether they get any royalty for usage (which would be great - but I doubt). Obviously each reader that Cubic et al install needs an ISAM.

They issued a trading statement start of Feb announcing record 1st qtr.

Kind regards,

G.