Subject: [NEXTEL-1] New NIST spec brings contactless smart cards into the fold

From: [email-masked]
Date: Tue, 05 Aug 2003 04:15:29 -0400

New NIST spec brings contactless smart cards into the fold
07/22/03
By Vandana Sinha,
GCN Staff

The National Institute of Standards and Technology wants agencies to be able to
use the same cards for several purposes but different smart cards for the same
purpose. To that end, it has released the Government Smart Card Interoperability
Specification Version 2.1, replacing the year-old Version 2.0.   The latest
specification should make it easier for agencies to use smart-card systems
developed by different vendors, NIST officials said.

To address a growing trend among agencies, the new standard includes a common
interface for contactless smart cards, or cards that use radio frequency waves
rather than physical contact to share information with a reader device.
The new specification, detailed in the 229-page Interagency Report 6887-2003
Edition, “establishes the foundation for achieving interoperability for both
contact and contactless cards,” said Teresa Schwarzhoff, of NIST’s Computer
Security Division.

To assure interoperability, contactless cards must adhere to parts 1 through 4 of
the ISO 14443 standard. Any cryptography must use algorithms approved under
Federal Information Processing Standard 140-2.  The specification holds smart-card
vendors to interoperability requirements for the application program interfaces
that communicate a smart-card service to the client application on a host
computer.

What this means is that agencies will no longer be beholden to a vendor’s
proprietary smart-card software or hardware, Schwarzhoff said.  The Defense
Department intends to implement the new standard for its next deployment under the
Common Access Card program, she said. DOD has scheduled the next rollout for
fiscal 2004.  The Transportation Security Administration also plans to include the
new specification for its Transportation Worker Identification Card project. TSA
began two TWIC pilots over the past two weeks.

“The TWIC program is committed to the Government Smart Card Interoperability
Specification,” Paul Hunter, deputy director of the TSA project, said in a
statement. “Version 2.1 will help us immensely.”  The NIST revision is one step of
several toward standardization. Next month, NIST will submit the latest smart-card
specification to the International Committee of Information Technology Standards’
Advisory Group on Smart Cards for consideration to become an ISO standard.

http://www.gcn.com/vol1_no1/daily-updates/22844-1.html

NIST specification,
 http://csrc.nist.gov/publications/nistir/nistir-6887.pdf

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