In 1958, Bank of America in Fresno, California introduced the BankAmericard credit card. The original intent of the card was to simplify the financial processes of merchants. The BankAmericard was available only in California until 1965, when it was licensed in several other states. Bank of America relinquished control of the credit card program to the individual issuers in 1970, and fifteen countries were given licenses for the card in 1972. The various issuers of the BankAmericard came together under the name of Visa in 1975. Visa is a widely recognized name today and is the largest electronic payments network in the world, serving over 170 countries

Smart Cards
Visa Smart Cards contain electronic chips that store encrypted information. Smart Cards offer more security than credit or debit cards with magnetic strips. Identity thieves can copy the information from magnetic strips, but electronic chips are safe from this practice. When used in combination with a personalized identification number (PIN), Smart Cards offer a much higher level of security than the typical credit or debit card. Smart Cards can be used around the world. The South Pacific alone hosts more than 1,680,000 chip-enabled point-of-service payment terminals.

Verified by Visa
Verified by Visa, introduced in 2002, is another program that enhances the cardholder’s security. Online purchases require the use of a password in order to complete the transaction. This guards against unauthorised use of Visa credit and debit cards. Cardholders register their Verified by Visa password and can immediately have added protection when making purchases from Verified by Visa merchants.

Visa payWave
Visa cardholders can “Wave, pay, and go” with a Visa payWave card. PayWave is a contactless way to make payments, making merchant transactions quicker and more convenient. The payWave system uses Near-Field Communication (NFC) technology to transmit and receive transaction information. Instead of swiping a credit or debit card through a card reader and then entering a PIN, the user positions the payWave card in front of the payWave reader, and the transaction is complete. Several Asia Pacific countries have incorporated the use of payWave through contactless-enabled phones, PDA’s, and other USB devices.

Visa Travel Money
Visa Travel Money allows cardholders to have access to cash for expenses in foreign countries. Travel Money cards are available in various amounts. They are prepaid and are disposal after the cash amount is exhausted. Cardholders can purchase up to nine Travel Money cards at one time, giving themselves access to a larger amount of cash or allowing their traveling companions to use one or more of the cards. Visa Travel Money cards require the cardholder to enter a PIN with each transaction, increasing the security of the card.

Other Services
Visa offers credit and debit cards to businesses, corporations, and government institutions. Visa cards allow more detailed monitoring of financial transactions while providing a high level of security.

Visa Global Customer Assistance is available 24-four hours a day. Cardholders can call the toll-free number for instant access to ATM location information, travel and medical assistance, and to report lost or stolen cards.

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pammy is IT Consultant. pammy writes articles about Compare credit cards from Australia’s leading

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Smartgrid2: We were right about cable modems and BPL is next

Former European cable execs see BPL parallels

Firm poised to ease BPL’s entry into Europe

Reproduced from the Jan 30 issue of BPL Today with the permission of the publisher, GHI LLC (202-298-8201, www.bpltoday.com).

Two former vice presidents of reportedly Europe ’s largest triple play firm started a BPL integrator/operator called Smartgrid2.

Tom Walsh and Patricia McGrath were executives at UPC Broadband — now owned by Liberty Global. The Netherlands-based firm grew from a 200-user cable modem trial network in Amsterdam in the mid 90s to a customer base of over 1.5 million cable broadband subscribers in 14 countries in 2002. Walsh was vice president of engineering and then operations and McGrath was vice president of network planning and implementation.

The two left UPC and in 2005 they started Smartgrid2 in Ireland . They looked at various alternative technologies and soon found BPL.Smartgrid2 is convinced BPL is the technology it had been looking for and set its sights on deploying BPL for utility services and retail triple play throughout Europe .

Walsh and McGrath spoke to us Thursday from their headquarters in County Kerry in Southwest Ireland .Walsh is CTO and McGrath is director.“ Europe will offer incredible opportunity for ‘smart grid’ technology players for the next 10 years,” said Walsh. He believes the key for BPL technology firms to succeed in Europe will be to maintain a presence without draining resources and funds.

Smartgrid2 ( www.smartgrid2.com ) is set up to help. The firm’s been trying to land BPL projects with utilities but like everywhere, European utilities have resisted.

EU’s pushing BPL

“Utilities have been slow to come to the table so far — but here in Europe the EU is actively pushing the technology,” said Walsh. Why is the government of Europe pushing BPL?

A BPL initiative is underway to “overcome the energy challenges presented by a rapidly expanding [EU] membership where demand is outstripping supply,” Walsh reported. He and McGrath are involved in that government effort and they’re confident “it will happen,” she added. The firm wants to introduce to Europe some of the main players in the BPL world “that have existing and proven technologies and proven business cases so that we can jump start some technology trials.

“We believe that some of the strongest players have a great opportunity to be in at the beginning” — with a real possibility to turn those trials into commercial deployments.

Smartgrid2 hopes to avoid “open-ended science experiments — that I think have been some people’s experience in the past,” said McGrath. Some of the utilities in the EU are trying to “reinvent the wheel,” she added — and Smartgrid2 wants to show them wheels are “already out there,” she added.

The challenge for Smartgrid2 is to make deals with international BPL technology firms including US firms and represent them in Europe .

The name says it all

Smartgrid2 learned early that utilities aren’t usually interested in hype about the broadband business. True to its name, the firm is focused on utility applications and sees that market offering huge potential. Commercial broadband is a side benefit that can be delivered by firms that lease bandwidth from the utility, he noted.

But the need for the 21st century smart grid is urgent. The EU grew from 15 to 27 countries in the last 3 years, Walsh reminded. Many have rapidly growing economies that are putting incredible demand on power grids.

These states have limited raw resources for energy production and a lack of organization in the power interconnection between countries. The EU doesn’t have a system to manage the grid or know “who’s producing power” and who’s using it.

“Smart grid efficiency and control are finally being seen as the way to integrate and manage the various networks” — and cut reliance on generators outside the Union , said Walsh.

Meanwhile less developed nations in the EU are trying to build their economies and getting access to broadband is a key ingredient. “Pilot projects are being planned to take the best existing solutions and test them for commercial roll-outs throughout Europe .”

Walsh expects BPL’s role to expand as green power generation projects such as home-based generation, solar panels, wind farms, tidal power and more start populating the grid. Interconnection with those projects will make managing the reliability of the grid ever more complicated — and some look to BPL as an obvious answer to managing that complexity.

They saw cable get smart

BPL reminds Walsh of the early days of cable. People in 1997 told him cable modem networks “couldn’t happen, it wouldn’t work — we were dreaming.” BPL is in roughly the same position as cable was then — with a lack of standards, some engineering challenges in creating networks plus it’s got its nay sayers.

The broadband boom in Europe was similar to “the wave that’s building for smart grids. ”Cable traditionally was a one-way, wire-based distribution network. Sounds familiar.

Cable modem technology introduced tremendous advantages by adding IP to those networks.

Suddenly the operator could see the condition of every piece of gear on the network all the way to the customer’s modem.

That gave Walsh a brand new kind of power in making financial decisions. He could make choices on where to spend money on the network — based not on which technology officer in field wrote the most compelling request, “but on actual live statistics,” he stressed.

His operational crews — that had only ever been reactive — could now act proactively based on real-time data and “before stuff breaks.” Walsh would set targets and key performance indicators for his managers and then “see how they were doing — not based on a score card but actual real statistics, real facts.”

QUOTE OF THE WEEK: All of a sudden you had huge efficiencies coming into the operation which means you gave better end-service to the customer. At the same time you were able to reduce costs of providing the service. This was all happening in the cable sector probably in the years of 2002, 2003. Take that benefit and combine it with BPL and you are making that business case look much rosier.

Tom Walsh, CTO, Smartgrid2

These folks have scaled

Another similarity with cable is the problem utilities face in scaling data networks to cover entire utility footprints. Those are the same problems Walsh tackled with cable-based broadband, he reminded.

It takes “business nerve” to wait for the opportunities to ripen — and then capital to take advantage of the moment when it’s right.

Superior technology will win out, he added. “For us, ‘smart grids’ is nothing new.

“We deployed similar technology on communications networks and quickly realized the operational benefits when scaling is handled correctly.”

While Smartgrid2 works on landing utility contracts, the firm has started deploying MDU networks in the hospitality industry in Ireland .That work helps the firm add hands on experience with BPL plus generate revenue. ( www.mains4.com )

An invitation to Europe

Grids around Europe offer various challenges and “customizing hardware and software for individual markets is crucial,” said Walsh. “A partnership with the right European player can ease that pain.

“We are actively seeking to represent manufacturers over here.” Smartgrid2 partnered with a firm that’s got 180 trained, certified line crew workers “who excel on the physical installation of utility gear.

“Any executive struggling with how to hit Europe should get in touch. “If they are serious and can deliver, we’ll be happy to help them exploit the European opportunities we uncover through our role in the advisory and working groups.”

Smartgrid2 isn’t married to any manufacturer or chipset, Walsh reported, and that lets it “work in an unbiased way to select best-of-breed technologies.

“The smart grids principle is not new. “It’s been [used] in the telecom sector for over four years and has revolutionized both technical and operational management.

“These benefits can now be realized by power utilities, too”

About Author

Tom Walsh is the former VP of Global IP Operations and Engineering for Europe’s biggest MSO (Multiple Service Operator) where he deployed cable SmartGrid solutions, Broadband IP systems and networks throughout the EU, Latin America and Asia Pacific.

The History of Smart Card Technology

The smart card as we know it has become a very common convenience and it was introduced in it’s modern form in 1978. These days smart cards are seen in a wide variety of devices that we use every day from cell phones to credit cards, debit cards and memory devices. The main function of the smart card is to use the technology of compact chips to process data inside whatever device it is used in. Smart cards resemble credit cards, many of which have proportions which are identical to their credit and debit card cousins, with the also similar magnetic stripe on the back. Rather than relying thousands of microscopic magnets oriented in a particular way to represent the user’s information, smart cards can electronically store considerably more information with the use of a microchip. Generally they are used for financial payment instruments, security badges and authentication mechanisms for computer equipment.

Contact Based Smart Cards

Quite simply, contact based smart cards are those which need to be plugged into something in order for them to work. There are two types of these contact based smart cards available, one of which is a memory card which will only allow memory to be read and written to it. The other type is a microprocessor card which has processing capabilities as well as memory. It is the latter type of contact based smart card which is used in complex devices such as mobile phones and credit cards. Memory cards are the other common type of smart cards, being used as they are in cameras, laptops and other devices which makes use of storage. Mobile phones use these kinds of cards in order to add extra functionality to that which their SIM cards already provide.

Contactless Smart Cards

This type of contactless smart card communicates with other devices via the use of radio frequency identification technology (RFID). During the entire communication process the card at no point needs to touch the surface of the reading device. It is this sort of technology that is used to make activities such as boarding a bus or paying with a credit card much faster and easier.

Concerns Over Security

The introduction of thse contactless smart cards initially sparked fears over potential security risks. The worry was that since there was a distance between transmitter and receiver, a potential identity theif would be able to stand a small distance from the transmitter and read the data from the card. Fortunately these concerns were unfounded since data on the card was encrypted using at least 128-bit encryption, making it highly unlikely that any theif would be able to process the data.

Contact Sections

Smart cards can receive electrical signals from different locations from different readers. Every card reader that a contact based smart car is placed in will place it’s electrical contacts on top of the car, right above each section. to prevent signals from going to the wrong end of the card the metal contacts are split from one another.

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Notorious hacker Chris Tarnovsky opens his underground laboratory to Wired.com, providing a peek into the world of satellite TV smart-card hacking. This complicated process involves nail polish, a pin head and various acids — so don’t try this at home (unless you’re Chris Tarnovsky)!

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About Author

Dave Matthews is writing on behalf of smart and combi cards manufacturer, Universal Smart Cards.

SAN DIEGO, CA–(Marketwire – December 8, 2009) – Cubic Corporation (NYSE: CUB) announced today that it has established a new subsidiary in India — Cubic Transportation Systems (India) Pvt. Ltd. — and is entering this dynamic regional market with a five-month trial of Cubic’s smart card-based fare collection technology aboard buses in Delhi. Cubic’s new office in the growing high-tech hub of Hyderabad, India, will pursue automated fare collection systems and services business throughout the country and provide software development support for transportation projects worldwide.

The smart card trial started in November as part of the Delhi Integrated Multi Modal Transit System (DIMTS), a joint initiative of the Government of National Capital Territory of Delhi (GNCTD) and the Infrastructure Development Finance Company (IDFC) to deliver world-class urban transportation infrastructure for India’s capital region. Cubic installed and integrated its smart card technology aboard new low-floor air-conditioned buses on one of the many bus routes operated by the Delhi Transport Corporation, which oversees operations for the GNCTD. DTC is expanding its bus fleet to more than 11,000 buses.

Cubic provided approximately 5,000 smart cards, as well as smart card validators, and its open-architecture Driver Control Unit, an ‘on-bus’ processing platform that integrates — in one single device — automatic fare collection (AFC) and intelligent transportation system applications such as GPS-based vehicle tracking, passenger counting and security systems.

The new technology received excellent news coverage. According to The Hindu newspaper, Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit said using a common smart card “would make travel comfortable for commuters as they would not have to buy a ticket from the conductor every time, and therefore the hassle of cash and change would be eliminated.”

Delhi Transport Commissioner R.K. Verma said, “The AFC technology for the pilot is based on the well-proven London Oyster Card and other implementations worldwide. We are hoping that ultimately we will bring an excellent AFC platform to Delhi commuters.”

“DIMTS is pleased to bring smart card technology to the Delhi buses. We are evaluating the smart card system in the Indian environment and look forward to implementing a world-class AFC solution in Delhi,” said S.N. Sahai, Managing Director of Delhi Integrated Multi Modal Transit System Limited (DIMTS).

The fast pace of the smart card technology — it can complete transactions in a fraction of a second — suits India, which is one of the fastest-expanding economies in the world. Several of India’s largest cities are planning major infrastructure improvements. The Cubic system piloted in Delhi is based on contactless RFID technology that Cubic has implemented in major transport systems around the world including London, Washington, D.C., Chicago, Atlanta, Miami, San Francisco and Brisbane, Australia.

Cubic’s Oyster Card, for example, operates aboard approximately 8,000 buses and in more than 250 rail stations in the greater London area, a number that will grow in January 2010 when the Oyster Card will begin to be accepted on services across the national rail network around London. In addition, Cubic developed the “go card” for South East Queensland, which is used for bus, rail and ferry travel in that region. Delhi transit officials have studied both of these systems as they work to improve Delhi’s transportation infrastructure prior to its hosting of the October 2010 Commonwealth Games.

Smart card-based fare collection systems offer a way to stem the losses and equipment maintenance costs that can occur with cash operations while offering the convenience of seamless, intermodal travel to passengers. They allow transit planners to track how many passengers are using a particular rail line, ferry, bus route or parking facility, ensuring existing resources are used wisely and also plan future expansion of services. Smart card systems are also a good way for local governments and private companies to provide transportation benefits to their workers.

“With all the major cities in India involved in Metro infrastructure projects, and with large bus fleets to modernize, Cubic Transportation Systems is already presenting and positioning for future awards. We are also exploring business with Indian Railways,” said Kishan Kamojjhala, Cubic’s Managing Director for the India start-up.

Cubic® Transportation Systems, Inc., one of two major segments of Cubic Corporation, is the world’s leading turnkey solution provider of automated fare collection systems for public transport including bus, bus rapid transit, light rail, commuter rail, heavy rail, ferry and parking. Cubic’s solutions and services include system design, central computer systems, equipment design and manufacturing, device-level software, integration, test, installation, warranty, maintenance, computer hosting services, call centre services, card management and distribution services, financial clearing and settlement, multi-application support and outsourcing services.

Every year, nearly 10 billion rides are taken worldwide using Cubic fare collection systems. Cubic has delivered over 400 projects in 40 major markets on five continents. Active projects include London; New York / New Jersey region; Washington, D.C. / Baltimore / Virginia region; Los Angeles region; San Diego region; San Francisco; Minneapolis/St. Paul; Chicago; Atlanta; Miami; Vancouver and Edmonton, Canada; Brisbane, Australia; and Scandinavia.

Cubic Corporation’s defense segment is a world leader in realistic combat training systems, mission support services and defense electronics. For more information about Cubic, see the company’s website at www.cubic.com.

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This video shows you what is a Smartcard and how to use it. This is very useful for new students in WIS.

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Of late, smart cards have become a growing industry. They have immense uses in the present time and are used extensively in almost every domain of life. Smart cards have gained popularity due to their wide application. They have made their presence felt in almost every field including payphones, banking and retail, communication, security control and many more. With the use of Internet and e commerce, smart cards have gained momentum and there are a plethora of usages of smart cards.

In this day and age, it has become quite impossible to move out, shop or even eat without having a smart card. Smart cards have indeed become an integral part of our lives since they are easy to carry along and use. These portable cards have made life much easier than it used to be before. They serve as reliable identification cards and are absolutely safe to use. In this article, we will throw light on the prime uses of smart cards, which are mentioned below:

Payphones

There are several countries where payphones are well equipped with card readers. Their benefit to the phone companies is that they are not required to collect coins and also they get timely payment in the most convenient manner. People like to use their smart cards at payphones, because they need not keep their eyes on their wallet every time to see if they have adequate money or not.

Banking and Retailing

Smart banking cards have multiple uses. They can be used as debit cards, credit cards or store value cards. Smart cards also serve as a good personal identification proof. There is an intelligent microchip on the smart card as well as on the card reader that secures the interest of users, merchants as well as bank. Of late, smart cards have given impetus to loyalty programs.

Security Control

Every organization whether school or private firm needs some form of security control. Though there are several kinds of security control measures, but smart cards are considered to be better than the rest, as they operate offline as well. Smart card authenticates a person’s identity and is extensively used in schools and offices nowadays. It also gives an access to individuals such as students in restricted areas. They can easily enter computer rooms by showing their smart cards on the smart card reader.

Mobile Phone Communication

Smart cards have great use in the field of mobile phone communication. For GSM digital mobile phones, these cards make a wonderful identification device. They store every bit of information to bill the smart card user. Also, smart cards enable the user to make calls from any phone terminal.

Health Care Services

Smart cards give accessibility to the patients’ case history. Information is properly stored and can be accessed at any point of time.  Health care professionals access patients’ information, which is stored on their smart cards, and update the same in their official records. Smart cards also pave way for instant insurance processing. In fact, nowadays doctors and nurses also carry smart identification cards that enable them to do multi level information accessing.

E-commerce

Smart cards are widely used for performing a host of electronic commercial transactions. You can buy articles of your choice over the Internet. You can get the tickets booked via Internet by means of smart card. You can order flowers, birthday gifts and do a lot more by using your smart card as a credit card or debit card. Smart cards have great use in service industries, as you can easily make payments online for services provided by the other party.

To conclude, smart card has become the buzzword in present times and almost every person has one smart card or the other.

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Bahrain Smart Card Conference and Exhibition organized by Bahrain Information Technology Society – BITS with participation of eSgulf. Demonstration of Smart card technologies for National ID and Homeland security

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Check out ID Superstore for low prices on id card printers. They also carry many other quality identification supplies, such as pvc cards and id printer ribbons.