The Smart Card Alliance announced the 2006 awards for "Outstanding Smart Card Achievement"(OSCA) in the North American smart card industry during its annual conference. Selected for awards were the U.S. Department of State for Outstanding Issuer Organization, Gemalto for Outstanding Supplier Organization and Neville Pattinson, director, technology and government affairs, Gemalto North America for the Outstanding Individual Leadership Award.

A judging panel consisting of smart card industry leaders along with individuals from the analyst and media communities evaluated all qualified OSCA applications and scored them according to their merits and impact on the industry. The judges' combined scores were then used to select the winners.

The Outstanding Issuing Organization award went to the U.S. Department of State, Bureau of Consular Affairs, Passport Services. The U.S. State Department added contactless smart card technology to passports to prevent counterfeiting and to better link the passport to the person to whom it was issued.

After nearly two years of thorough technology testing and production qualification, the State Department started issuing electronic passports in August 2006 and plans to incorporate the contactless smart card capability in the expected 16 million new passports to be issued in the 2007 calendar year. The State Department's groundbreaking use of contactless smart card technology better protects our country's international travelers, enables fast immigration processes and improves the security of the passport booklet.

The Outstanding Supplier Organization award went to Gemalto. Formed in June 2006 by the combination of Axalto and Gemplus International S.A., Gemalto is a world leader in digital security, producing smart cards and related services. The company has demonstrated leadership in every sector of the North American smart card market. Gemalto's achievements in North America include shipping 11 million DoD Common Access Card identity credentials, 5 million contactless smart cards and the majority of the 80 million SIM cards in the mobile phones of active GSM subscribers in the region. Recently Gemalto also received a contract to supply technology for the new electronic passport program. Companies using their smart cards and solutions for IT security include 4 of the top 5 oil companies; 3 of the top 5 pharmaceutical companies; Boeing, Microsoft and Sun; and many others.

The recipient of the Individual Leadership Award was Neville Pattinson, director of technology and government affairs, Gemalto North America. Pattinson is a leading expert on smart cards and using the microprocessor chip to keep identity credential data and biometrics secure and private. He has been heavily involved in planning and implementing a number of federal government security initiatives including: the Department of Defense Common Access Card (CAC); the State Department's Electronic Passport; the Department of Transportation's Transportation Worker Identity Credential (TWIC) and the Transportation Security Administration's Registered Traveler programs. Pattinson also played a key role in the government and industry activities that led up to the publication of FIPS 201 in response to HSPD-12.

Pattinson was recently named to the Department of Homeland Security(DHS) Data Privacy and Integrity Advisory Committee. He is an active board member of the International Biometric Industry Association (IBIA) and the Smart Card Alliance, the co-chair of the Smart Card Alliance Identity Council and a founding member of the Secure ID Coalition.



KW