Exploitable results
The development of authenticated and secure fund transfer, both in public and private sectors, is largely dependent upon a secure online payment system. Today, this is often associated with proprietary magnetic stripe card systems. This approach will soon be replaced by smart card solutions. To reach a widely accepted universal solution, an open source software set has been defined so that combining hardware and software becomes more practical. The EMBEDDED FINREAD and FINREAD SHOWCASE projects gather many of the key partners involved. Thanks to IST programme funding, they have established the specifications and made them freely accessible to smart card reader designers worldwide. In a second phase, FINREAD will develop a universal PC connectable smart card reader system.
During the recent Omnicard seminar held in Berlin in January 2003, ten years of success of the smart card concept was in evidence. And now the next step: the banking industry is migrating from magnetic stripe technology to integrated circuit (IC) card technology.
Across Europe, nearly half the bank cards in circulation are already chip-based and it is expected that it will exceed 80% in 2 to 3 years. The banks would like to take advantage of the additional security offered by smart cards by ensuring a compatible secure infrastructure for home devices. By using these cards within the home environment, secure payment and authentication services would be offered to consumers, boosting e-commerce and remote financial services. Besides e-commerce, home-banking, security and e-government services require the use of a secure and trustworthy IC card reader.
So far, most current software uses proprietary software architectures including a driver designed for use with one single type of IC card reader. Although there are several initiatives to establish a common software architecture to interface with an IC card reader, there is no standard established yet.
FINREAD - Financial Transactional IC Card Reader - is an innovative European solution to meet the need for advanced security for smart card transactions via public networks. The founding members of the FINREAD consortium consists of seven European partners, comprising six key European payment systems and the leading card reader manufacturer. The partners are Banksys, MasterCard Europe, Groupement des Cartes Bancaires "CB", Ingenico, Interpay Nederland, SIZ (the computer processing centre of the German Saving Banks), Visa EU, Canal+ Technologies, France Telecom, GTA, Omnikey AG, Orga, Sagem, SCM Microsystems. The design and promotion of FINREAD are co-ordinated by Groupement des Cartes Bancaires "CB".
Currently FINREAD is defining the specifications of an interoperable intelligent smart card reader to be connected to a personal computer. Parallel to achieving this goal, FINREAD has developed a set of open standards - freely available to any terminal developer worldwide. This set of software specifications is applicable to various forms of mass-market terminal equipment, such as, portable devices (Cell Phones, Personal Digital assistants), set-top boxes, etc. The driving principle is that each device would accept payment cards with the same level of security and user-friendliness.
In a recent announcement made by CardSoft, a US Silicon Valley company, a recognised pioneer of interoperable software for fixed and wireless m-commerce devices, it recently launched their eAppliance platform that implements the FINREAD 1.1 specifications for intelligent smart card readers. William Vanobberghen, coordinator of the FINREAD project said: "The FINREAD specifications provide the necessary added value expected by the industry in terms of both security and portability. The expected growth in e-transactions mainly depends on how authentication and thus confidence occurs on each end of the Internet relation, but also on how quickly application providers will bring secure devices to the market. FINREAD namely contributes to enhance the capacities of small devices through its secure downloading process for applications, its high security features such as Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) and asymmetric cryptography, and its open inception."
The FINREAD card reader specification will benefit:
- Cardholders, building trust with different services offered within the home environment. Thanks to a reliable and standardised approach not available today on a PC due to the incalculable risks of the Internet or the PC-environment, these services might not be accessible elsewhere.
- Banks and payment systems, permitting secure financial and payment services via a standardised reader using uniform peripherals and software.
- IC card reader manufacturing industry and home device vendors, allowing the production of POI (Point of Interaction) devices valid for large mass markets using open, universal and commonly agreed technical specifications.
- Retailers, leading to a secure electronic payment instrument for carrying out payments on open networks which ensures non-repudiation of ownership.
The FINREAD initiative is undoubtedly a significant move towards a common yet reliable and largely accepted electronic fund transfer solution.
Promoted by: IST Results Service
Buscando datos de OpenAIRE...
Se ha producido un error en la búsqueda de datos de OpenAIRE
No hay resultados disponibles