in070623 

2007 Annual Report

 

Covering the period from May 2006 to May 2007

 

INCITS B10 Identification Cards and Related Devices

Links:

 

B10 Informal scope

 

Standardization in the area of cards and related documents and devices associated with their use in inter industry applications and international interchange.  Specific areas include physical characteristics, embossing, magnetic stripe encoding, integrated circuit cards (with and without contacts), optical memory cards, interoperability interfaces, machine-readable travel documents (passports and cards), driver’s license, test methods, and other personal identification cards.

 

  1. Executive Summary

 

The majority of the B10 work consists of international projects.

 

All international projects are developed through ISO/JTC1 SC 17, Cards and Personal Identification.  The SC 17 Work Program and Business are available on the SC 17 website at http://www.sc17.com/:

 

ISO/JTC1 SC 17 3074        Work Program

 

ISO/JTC1 SC 17 3075           Draft Business Plan November 2006-October 2007

 

Please refer to the SC 17 reports for all status regarding international projects.

 

Our INCITS project list consists of two projects under development.  One of these is in the Card Durability Test Methods and the second in the area of Smart Card Interoperability.

 

Development activity this past period was again heavily weighted towards chip cards.  Work on interoperability and contactless technology consumed a large portion of our efforts.

 

The US is leading the international effort on the interoperability standard for IC Cards with a new five-part standard, ISO/IEC 24727: Identification Cards – Integrated Circuit Cards Programming Interfaces.. This is work is under Work Group 4 Task Force 9.  Teresa Schwarzhoff  (US) is the TF9 convener.  We have provided project editors for all five parts of the standard.  The work is on schedule.

 

ISO/IEC 24727-1 is completed and  available for purchase.  ISO/IEC 24727-2 and -3 are nearing FDIS level. The work items for ISO/IEC 24727-4 and -5 were approved at a later date than that of the first three parts. ISO/IEC 24727-4 launched the first CD ballot this reporting period and results will be available in the next reporting period.  ISO/IEC 24727-5 is at WD. This final part deals with testing and consequently is somewhat dependent on the maturity of the other parts before progressing to CD. A CD is anticipated in early spring of 2008.

 

Activities in the contactless chip cards have also increased following two major market activities.  The first being the effort on the biometrically enabled passports which will be using a contactless chip technology.  The second is a push by major financial associations to utilize the contactless technology for low value payments. (Mastercard/EMVco)

 

A major revision of ISO/IEC 14443 was undertaken this past year to incorporate all of the changes that became apparent with “real world” application of contactless technology.  An expansion of this standard was also needed to include several different higher bit rates on the communication protocol.

 

The work on ICAO 9303 is complete.  This document  has an ISO/IEC counterpart ISO/IEC 7501, which is currently out for FDIS ballot per the agreement between ICAO and ISO.  The legislation on a biometrically enabled passport has significantly increased our participation in this area.

 

The initial meetings of the newly formed SC 17 workgroup, WG 11 – Biometric Match on Card, continue to occur.  B10 representation is limited.

 

The revision of INCITS 284 Healthcare card standard was made  to reflect the addition of a 2-D bar code symbology in response to industry requests.  This revision also required updating  the standard to include the latest contactless card technology.  This work continues to be revised to synchronize the US government-numbering scheme with international standards.  We are targeting a public review in the next quarter.

 

Work on the international driver’s license is progressing with ISO/IEC 18013- 1 published and Part 2 at FCD, and Part 3 nearing FCD approval.

 

B10.3 has completed the resolution of comments on the revision of INCITS 322 and it will be going out for public review shortly.  The revision included documented precision and bias statements for several test methods.  The document remains a test method standard and does not include any requirements or specifications for compliance.

 

B10.3 has also completed a Card Service life document.  It is an empirical approach to predict card durability, defining categories of card applications and identifying appropriate test results for cards in those categories.  While the future revisions will most likely refine the categories and specifications, variations of this approach are currently used in the industry.  It will also be going out for public review.

 

A new project was proposed in the Card Durability Test Methods area that involves a restructure of the test methods into components -- stress or preconditioning methods and measurement or evaluation methods.  Combinations of stress and evaluation methods, such as card flexure followed by inspection for fractures, would be included in an annex at the end of the document.  The proposal also includes additional text and figures to clarify the laboratory technique or improve measurements.  A rough draft has been submitted to the working group.

 

Work also continues on the ISO Card Durability standard.  There has been much discussion on how to approach this topic between different national bodies, but a CD should come out of the June WG1 meeting.

 

During this review period, we did complete thirty-nine international ballots on development work and one New Work Proposal.

 

Membership in B10 has decreased by five companies to sixty-three over the reporting period.  We continue to have a high level of participation at the international level in SC17 WG1, WG3, WG4, and WG8.

 

 

  1. Significant Accomplishments

 

In the area of Contactless cards, we recently published a standard for a limited use smart card (INCITS 410:2006).  This standard covers a lower cost smart card for use in the transportation market.  It is intended to begin replacing much of the magnetic stripe technology in this market.  Cards meeting this standard have already been rolled out in many areas.

 

The B10.5 group has also supplied the convener, Francis Christian to a new Task Force in WG8.  This TF was established to deal with the test environment for contactless IC’s.  TF2 is addressing the interoperability challenges introduced by the ambiguities in ISO/IEC 14443.  The work is very relevant, in particular for travel documents.

 

B10.9 continued advancing the new suite of smart card interoperability standards, ISO/IEC 24727: Identification Cards – Integrated Circuit Cards Programming Interfaces.  ISO/IEC JTC 1 SC 17/WG 4 Task Force 9 is responsible for this body of work and chaired by the US.  Active member bodies in TF 9 are Australia, France, Germany, Japan, Netherlands, United Kingdom, and the United States.  The TF 9 secretary  is ANSI.

 

The US has a strong team of project editors and technical experts.  Project editors for Parts 1-3 received the INCITS service award in 2004.  TF 9 continues to have an aggressive schedule, encouraging WG4 to maintain an aggressive meeting schedule for expedient comment resolution.  The number of TF9 meetings has dropped since most the work is at CD or higher stages.   TF9 held two meetings this reporting period.

 

ISO/IEC 24727-1: Identification Cards – Integrated Circuit Cards Programming Interfaces: Architecture has been finalized and is available for purchase.  

 

ISO/IEC 24727-2: Identification Cards – Integrated Circuit Cards Programming Interfaces: Generic Card Interface will launch as an FDIS ballot in this reporting period.  Significant technical progress has been made, most notably national body concurrence of a single programming language for translation scripts that are required by the ISO/IEC 24727 architecture.  This significantly improves and simplifies the interoperability goal.

 

A  first FCD, will launch for ISO/IEC 24727-3: Identification Cards – Integrated Circuit Cards Programming Interfaces: Application Interface in October 2006.  ISO/IEC 24727-3 provides the application programming interface.  The concepts in this standard require a greater learning curve by WG 4 participants since they are accustomed to dealing with ‘on-card’ commands rather that abstractions required by APIs that do not reside on the card but rather on the host and client side. Results of this ballot will be provided in the next reporting period.

 

A second CD or first FCD will launch on ISO/IEC 24727-4: Identification Cards – Integrated Circuit Cards Programming Interfaces: API administration in October 2006.  Part 5 includes the necessary elements of a secure credential architecture and is technically complex.  National body concurrence will be challenging.

 

A more detailed WD for the final part, ISO/IEC 24727-5: Identification Cards – Integrated Circuit Cards Programming Interfaces: Testing, will be available in late 2007 and progress will be reported in next year’s annual report.

 

The European Union has adopted ISO/IEC 24727 for its EU citizen card initiative and Australia has adopted this work for their chip based driver’s license.  The Australia government has approved the use of a human services access card for all Australian citizens. This card will replace current social services card and tenders have required compliance with ISO/IEC 24727, a testament to the timeliness of the B10 work program.

 

At a national level, B10.9 continues to consider Government work efforts, in particular Federal standards for smart card based federal identity credentials, with the hope to leverage this work to develop interoperability interfaces at a national level.  B10 approved a B10.9  proposal for  a technical report that will make use of ISO/IEC 24727 with applications that are currently in use in the United States.  The two applications are identity credentials and transportation fare cards.  The goal of the technical report is to identify and remedy possible deficiencies and areas of improvements in ISO/IEC 24727.  Other countries are doing this and contribute heavily to TF 9 – the US should as well, in particular since we are championing this international body of work.  A draft of this technical report will be available for US vetting in the next reporting cycle.  The technical report has proven useful in improving the ISO/IEC 24727 standard.

The FDIS for the international driver’s license has been passed (ISO/IEC 18013 Part 1) was published as an ISO Standard. ISO/IEC 18013-1 establishes the design format and data content of an ISO-compliant driving license (IDL).

ISO/IEC 18013-2 governing Machine Readable Technologies describes machine readable attributes of an IDL, has moved to FCD status .

 

A new standard, ISO/IEC 15457-1 and -2 Thin Flexible Card ,has been published.

 

WG3 has finalized a review of the ICAO 9303 document and it is out for FDIS balloting.  There is a lot of activity in the WG Task Forces to support all of the  involvement with production of biometric passports. 

 

  1. Significant Challenges

 

The year was challenged by the number of international ballots that were required.  Getting active participation in letter ballots was difficult.

 

Although we see an increase in membership, we do not seem to have an increased level of actual contributions from companies or technical experts.

 

  1. Expected Challenges

            
                
None.

 

  1. Committee Activities

5a.   Previous year's meetings

 

B10 TC and TG meetings are held in the same week and place three times a year.  The US Registration Committee does not meet at every meeting.

 

Meeting Groups

Date

Location/Host

All

August 14-17, 2006

San Francisco/Visa/Kurz

All

January 15-18, 2007

Carson CA/Magtek/

All

April 30-May3, 2007

Minneapolis/Datacard/HID/3M/Eclipse Labs

 

 

5b.   Next Year's Meetings

 

Meeting Groups

Date

Location/Host

All

August 12-15, 2006

Washington DC/UATP

All

January 2008 (TBD)

Carson/Magtek

All

April/May 2008 (TBD)

TBD

 

  1. Liaison Activities

 

X12N, Liaison, Health Care Cards

Peter Barry

 

Open Security Exchange (OSE)

Gary Klinefelter, HID

 

  1. Membership and Officers

 

7a.   Plenary Officers

 

Position

Name/Organization

Chair

Brian Beech/Datacard

Vice Chair

Patrick Macy/Universal Air Travel Plan

Secretary

Discover Financial Services

International Representative

Discover Financial Services

 

Task Group Officers

 

B10.1             IC Cards with Contacts

Chair-Jim Russell, Mastercard International

US TAG to JTC1 SC 17 WG4

 

B10.3             Card Service Life

Chair-Brad Paulson, ICMA

 Secretary-Gene Meier, Datacard Project Editor-Gene Meier, Datacard

PE-ANSI/INCITS 322, Kevin Tall, Eclipse Laboratories US TAG to JTC1 SC 17 WG1 TF2

 

B10.3             Card Durability Task Force

Chair-Brad Paulson, ICMA

 

B10.5             Contactless IC Cards

Chair, Francis Christian, Atmel Corporation

US TAG to JTC1 SC 17 WG8

 

B10.6             Physical Characteristics

Chair-Terry Schindler, Brush Industries

Secretary- Brad Paulson, ICMA

Project Editor- Denny Warwick, Datacard

US TAG to JTC1 SC 17 WG1

 

B10.8             Driver’s License

Chair-Vic Andelin, Digimarc ID Systems

Vice Chair-Geoff Slagle, Intellicheck

US TAG to JTC1 SC 17 WG10

 

B10.9             Application Program Interfaces and Smart Card Interoperability

Chair-Teresa Schwarzhoff, US Dept of Commerce, NIST

 

US TAG to JTC1 SC 17 WG4 TF9

 

USRC             US Registration Committee

Chair-Tina Fritz, Discover

US TAG to JTC1 SC 17 WG5

 

Other Officers

 

JTC1 SC 17 WG1/TF2 Convener

Felix Shvartsman, HID

 

JTC1 SC 17 WG3/TF1 Convener

Barry Kafauver, Fall Hill Associates

 

JTC1 SC 17 WG4/TF9 Convener 

Teresa Schwarzhoff, US Dept of Commerce, NIST

Sally Seitz, ANSI Secretariat

Project Editor-Gerry Smith, Sharp Microelectronics

Project Editor-Mike Neumann, StepNexus

Project Editor-Scott Guthery, Mobile-Mind

Project Editor- Tim Jurgensen, IdentityAlliance

 

 

JTC1 SC 17 WG5 Convener

Patrick Macy, UATP

 

JTC1 SC 17 WG8/TF4 Convener

Francis Christian, Atmel

 

JTC1 SC 17 WG10 Convener

Geoff Slagle, Intellicheck

 

JTC1 SC 17 WG9 Secretariat

Christopher Dyball, Lasercard

 

 

7b.   Membership

 

3M Company

AAMVA

ActivIdentity

American Express

American Bank Note Holographics

Apptis

Atmel Corporation

BearingPoint

Brush Industries

Biometric Associates

Boltaron Performance Products

CFC International

Computer Sciences Corporation

Colorado Plasticard

Cubic Transportation Systems

Datacard

Digimarc ID Systems

Discover Card

Dupont Teijin Films

Eclipse Laboratories

Exponent

Fall Hill Associates

FCB LLC

FM Group

Gemalto Corporation

Giesecke & Deverient

Global Platform

HID

H W Sands

ID Technology Partners

Identity Alliance

Infineon Technologies

Innovative Card Technology

Intellicheck

ICMA

 

JCB International

Klockner Plentaplast

Kurz Transfer Products

Lasercard Corporation

Magtek

Mastercard International

US Dept of Commerce, NIST

Oberthur Card Systems

Peter T Barry

NXP

Plastag

SAIC

Security Industry Association

Sharp Microelectronics

Sony Electronics

StepNexus

Texas Instruments

UATP

Unisys Corporation

 

US DoD-DMDC

US DoD-DISA

Visa International

Verifone

Visage Technology

Waytek

World Cell

 

 

 *Membership list from INCITS database

 

 

  1. Future Trends and activities

 

The trends we have seen over the last year have not really changed from the previous year.  The pace has picked up, but the focus is the same.

 

The financial market place in the US is driving for the use of chip cards, but unlike our international counterparts the US version will be contactless technology.  The major thrust is to capture the high volume of low dollar transactions (i.e. fast food, convenience items).  It has been estimated that over 40 million cards will be in circulation by the end of 2007.

 

The use of ISO 14443 is also being used in the roll out of new “smart” passports and we also see many cities rolling out contactless card transportation systems.

 

The second trend is the continuing increased focus on smart card interoperability.  This trend was kicked off by the US government need for interoperability; however it is required throughout the world in many installations.  We are excited  both the Europeans and Australia have decided to use ISO/IEC 24727 in their citizen card and chip based drivers’ license.

 

A third trend is the increased need for securer identity credentials, such as indicated by the US Government activity in this area and the publication of the US Government Federal Information Processing Standard (FIPS) 201, Personal Identity Verification of Federal Employees and Contractors.

 

  1. Other Administrative Information

 

 

 

B10 is happy to announce two of its member have been recognized by the INCITS Award committee.  Walt Bonneau received the INCITS Service Award and Francis Christian received the INCITS Merit Award.

 

B10 has reservations on the recently announced INCITS rule requiring an eight-month notification on hosting international meetings.  This is counter intuitive to the U.S. national standards strategy that encourages greater participation and involvement by our country within voluntary consensus based standards organizations. (http://www.ansi.org/standards_activities/nss/usss.aspx?menuid=3)  A high percentage of meetings are held aboard and US technical expert representation is limited. Voluntary standards work is an economic challenge for companies and organizations and their continued participation is commended. Attendance at US sponsored meetings lessens their travel expense burden.  The variability of ballot outcomes and aggressive schedules require making decisions for upcoming meetings rather quickly, with typically a month to three month calling notice. This is necessary to maintain forward progress. The inability for US to host meetings will severely limit the number of US technical experts present at meetings.  

 

 

Brian Beech

Chairman, INCITS B10

May 31, 2007