Sunday, April 8, 2012

How smartphone will become your credit card


How smartphone will become your credit card
An innovation is making it possible for smartphones to be used in place of access cards to open doors, gain entry into networks and secure locations.
BANGALORE: Imagine walking into the office one day, using the smartphone instead of your access card to open doors, marking attendance and logging onto your computer networkwithout filling in multiple authentication screens. The day isn't far. You might even end up paying your canteen food and parking fee though the smartphone or use it to borrow books.

Your phone is set to become your key to the world -- literally. An innovation is making it possible for smartphones to be used in place of access cards to open doors, gain entry into networks and secure locations. For starters, top executives of a Bangalore-based mid-sized company will soon be using their smartphones in the same way they would use their access cards.

The trend is new with the technological advances fairly recent. Right now, swipe cards and proximity card systems are mainly used to mark time of an employee's entry and exit and attendance.

But once smartphone-enabled access control systems come into play, the applications can stretch from availing of services at the cafeteria to borrowing books from the library and paying at parking lots.

In a typical large enterprise, access is controlled with the help of proximity cards. These cards, embedded with radio frequency identification chips, are used with a reader to authenticate the person carrying the card.

However, with mobile devices capable of communicating with the reader using the near-field communication technology, legacy technology can be fully done away with. New contactless smart card reader platforms with embedded secure access control capabilities can read NFC-enabled mobile devices, which could be laptops, tablets and mobile phones.

This technology shift, along with the fact that workers are becoming more mobile and want to bring their own devices to work, is changing access control mechanisms at offices. However, balancing corporate security with a growing tribe of mobile work leads to difficulties too.

"The definition of credential is changing," says Ranjit Nambiar, director of sales-South Asia, Identity & Access Management, HID Global. "Earlier, it was established with the smart card but now it could be through your smart phone," he says.

HID Global - part of the global lock-maker Assa Abloy AB -- is one of the largest technology suppliers to access control systems worldwide and ships nearly 120,000 access cards and about 5,000 readers out of India every month.

"Mobile access is one of our key initiatives worldwide," said Nambiar adding that the success of a pilot program at the Arizone State University where nearly 200 students were given near-field communication-enabled smartphones to test its applications at classrooms, dormitories, libraries, labs and other places goes on to prove the ease with which such technology can be deployed.

The innovation
So far, access cards carried data unique to each user that was read by the reader fixed on doors and access was granted or denied after a data check is carried out in the backend. But the concept of storing the data structure on the card is changing since it is prone to vulnerabilities.

Newer access control systems don't store a particular data structure on the card but store a piece of code, also called the secure identity object, on it. The secure identity object need not be stored on a card but even on any other device which is capable of communicating with the reader.

Devices are able to communicate with the readers using near-field communication (NFC) technology, which is receiving attention these days. Major technology companies are betting on near-field communication technology to become more and more prevalent as it finds newer applications.

"NFC works with most contactless smart cards and readers, meaning it can easily be integrated into the public transit payment systems in cities that already use a smart card swipe," says Vipul Mehrotra, director and head of Smart Devices, Nokia India. Nokia apart, Microsoft, Google, Visa and Samsung are part of a near-field communications group that will push tech adoption.

Application of NFC-enabled mobile phones are, however, not limited to access control systems only. Trials are being conducted globally to show how mobile phones with built-in NFCcapabilities can be used to do many things including getting access, figuring out directions and buying things by tapping them to NFC-enabled tags embedded in kiosks, retail outlets, signage and thousands of other devices.

The potential
The overall access control market in India is likely to be worth in excess of $250 million in 2011, growing at 25-30% year on year, says Deepa Doraiswamy, who tracks electronics and security market for Frost & Sullivan.

Government applications have been key drivers for growth but the increasing awareness on need of security has resulted in other end user segments like commercial, industrial, residential, transportation also driving significant demand for access control systems, she points out.

Apart from HID, ESSLSagemADTAspen Systems and many more Tier II and Tier III companies exist in the access control market, although with niche focus. "Use of NFC-enabled access control using smartphones is indeed the next big wave in access control," said Doraiswami.

However given that most of it is still in testing stages and early level implementations at a global level, it will take a few years before the technology becomes mainstay in India. Nambiar, who has seen access control technology change from older systems which used magnetic strips to contact less systems in a matter of four to five years, says that the new technology could take a similar amount of time or even less.

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