Oberthur Card Systems Receives First FIPS 140-2 LEVEL 3 Certification

Oberthur Card Systems ID-One 64K dual interface contact and contactless (ISO 14443) smart card is the first of its type to receive the U.S. governments FIPS 140-2 Level 3 certification.The certification, which is awarded by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), also allows Oberthur Card Systems to compete globally for e-passport contracts. These machine-readable passports -- which contain a contactless smart card chip that is compliant with new International Civil Aviation Authority (ICAO) specifications and is used to store biometric information -- have been mandated by the Department of Homeland Securitys U.S. Visitor and Immigrant Status Indicator Technology (US-VISIT) program and by the Department of States latest e-passport Request For Proposal. Oberthur Card Systems card solution brings the smart card industrys latest standards to the government arena for the first time. The card also is fully compliant with the GSC-IS 2.1 specification, a standard that will help to ensure interoperability across government agencies and departments. Oberthur Card Systems ID-One solution makes available all 64K for customer-specified applications and biometric information such as facial, iris or fingerprint records. Contactless ID smart card solutions increase the speed and ease with which authorized personnel can access secure virtual and physical environments. In addition to identification and authentication, ID-Ones large available storage capacity and processing power allow it to serve multiple purposes including the digital signing and encryption of emails, or for storing data such as important medical information. Oberthur Card Systems has already issued significant quantities of 32K smart cards for ID and security to the Defense Manpower Data Center (DMDC) -- which administers the DoDs CAC program -- the U.S. Department of State, the U.S. Army, the U.S. Department of Treasury, the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) and the General Services Administration (GSA). The U.S. government is making smart cards an integral part of its drive to secure its information systems and physical facilities, issuing them to as many as 40 million individuals, according to the Interior Department. To provide secure products on a scale demanded by the U.S. government, cards can be issued out of any of Oberthur Card Systems three personalization facilities in the United States: Los Angeles, Naperville, IL and Chantilly, VA, with each site serving as an instant backup to the others if required. As the subsidiary of the Francois-Charles Oberthur Group, a world leader in the issuance of traditional and chip-enabled passports who has designed and manufactured passport and ID documents for over 50 countries, as well as the worlds third largest banknote printer, Oberthur Card Systems is the only company in the world that can combine secure passport issuance with high-capacity, high-security and FIPS-approved contact and contactless microprocessors.