NASA Selects Philips MIFARE DESFire Contactless Smart Card Chip

National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has selected Philips advanced MIFARE DESFire contactless chip technology to enable secure smart card access to its facilities. Compliant with the United States governments Government Smart Card Interoperability Specification (GSC-IS) standard, Philips chip technology is being incorporated into smart cards deployed to agency employees and contractors for immediate identity authentication. Other government agencies, such as the U.S. Department of Interior, are also implementing physical access systems compliant with the GSC-IS interoperability specification. Philips MIFARE DESFire V0.6 is the first chip solution currently compliant with this specification. In partnership with smart card system integrator MAXIMUS, NASA is the latest federal agency to move from low-frequency (125Khz) to industry-standard ISO 14443 technology for increased interoperability based on GSC-IS. Different agencies using a GSC-IS compliant physical access system based on the secure MIFARE DESFire will have the option to allow each others physical access cards to work in different secure areas, further enhancing inter-agency collaboration. A field trial is planned at the Marshall Space Flight Center in Alabama this summer, with potential expansion to 2,000 employees. If the trial is successful and approval is secured from the Office of Management and Budget, NASA plans to deploy more than 100,000 smart cards before the end of the 2005 fiscal year. This number includes cards for contractors and government employees.