By Editor
HID’s business model in the region seems almost flawless. The region had been and always will be a strong market solutions based on a distinctive set of social and geographical conditions.
The region’s unique demographics means that identity management solutions have always been in high demand.
With a large proportion of residents in many Gulf nations being immigrants, governments in the region invest a lot of resources certifying their identity. Further, the last few years have witnessed several countries affected by civil strife as a result of the Arab Spring phenomenon. This has resulted in hundreds of thousands of refugees flowing across borders in the region. “Under these circumstances, governments in the region need some identification mechanism for these displaced peoples,” said Nat Pisupati, Regional Sales Director, for HID Global EMEA.
“Middle East government traditionally also take security very seriously and so they come to companies like us so they can use our products and solutions to provide their citizens and residents a secure environment,” added Harm Radstaak, Managing Director, HID Global, EMEA.
Organizations, among them enterprises, educational and health institutions, require physical access control, identity control and strong authentication capabilities. This could be on ID cards or logical security for a building. Another major vertical is the financial sector where HID offers strong authentication for banks to secure their online transactions. “Essentially, we want to make sure you are who you say you are,” said Pisupati.
HID Global security solutions are in several key areas. One is secure smart card IDs and credentials in a variety of form factors for physical and logical access control; as well as converged solutions for building and computer access, transit payment, cashless vending, biometrics and other applications. The cards are in such areas as non-technology IDs as well as single technology, multi technology, and contact chip-based smart cards.
HID is also a leader in secure printers and encoders with its Fargo range. These are card issuance solutions for organizations such as casinos, financial services firms, small businesses and retailers, as well as for temporary ID badge applications. HID’s variety of secure contactless and contact card readers are to be found in all kind of installations all over the Middle East. These include facility access control, mobile payment devices, computer network data security, medical record management, employee time and attendance, border control and more. The readers are compatible with HID cards, tokens, inlays and prelaminates. “Our integrated solutions mean that our customers can manage identities across their organizations from a single point. An identity loaded on a credential can be used for physical access, printing on demand or for strong authentication,” said Radstaak
HID Global also provides a range of solutions in the government ID card space, from a single component to an entire system ranging from enablement and enrolment, through card issuance, authentication and management.
RFID technology on the other hand offers almost limitless possibilities. HID Global offers a diverse line of RFID tags and transponders providing services in asset tracking to waste management in in LF, HF and UHF. In agriculture, HID Global contactless RFID transponders help manage and track livestock, pets, lab animals and products in the food supply chain.
HID’s ActivID Credential Management System (CMS) enables the issuance, reissuance and revocation of Smart Chip-enabled credentials. With the ActivID CMS, organizations can deploy the Identity Assurance solution they require to secure access to their facilities, networks, systems and cloud-based applications.
“Our major advantage is that we provide an entire ecosystem offering integrated solutions through our partners, incorporating hardware and software which we develop ourselves. We offer secure printers, physical access control, strong authentication and identity assurance. In addition, we avail our software development tools and APIs to our partners to integrate their own solutions with their other products as well as third party solutions,” said Radstaak.
BYOD has also brought security for mobile devices to the core within the enterprise. “The technology department needs to control all the new devices. We are able to provide strong authentication through apps for smartphones and tablets,” said Radstaak. In association with parent company Assa Abloy, HID will load an application or identity on a phone over the air through a technology known as On Air Provisioning. IT offers the infrastructure together with Assa Abloy to use this identity for IT security, physical access control and RFID to manage mechanical locks for instance. This technology, developed a few years ago, uses NFC applications on Android and RIM phones.
In 2013, HID has three product areas they are looking to put focus on. This include a new industrial printer which, according to Radstaak, features enhanced security features including laser engraving used in areas such as voters ID cards, drivers licenses, and national ID cards.
“In the access control segment, we should see more traction for our Seos-based solutions. This innovative technology is an ecosystem of interoperable products and services for issuing, delivering and revoking digital keys on NFC mobile devices so that they can be used to open doors to homes, hotels, offices, hospitals, universities, industries and commercial buildings,” said Radstaak.
In identity assurance, HID has launched Phoenix, a technology for strong authentication application applied particularly for fraud detection services in banking. With this technology, certain behaviours would trigger an alert for online transactions that there may be case of fraud going on.
The future augurs well for HID Global and the technology it offers, especially for the financial sector. Near Field Communication (NFC) will continue to grow, according to Pisupati. NFC enabled payments through smartphones will become even more mainstream. Mobile banking will also continue to grow. This means that financial transactions over mobile devices will need to be secured as well. “At HID, we continue to invest in solutions for even stronger security solutions for mobile financial transactions,” said Pisupati.
Governments are also issuing secure documents such as IDs more frequently, according to Radstaak; from once every three of four years to every year in many cases as governments themselves keep up with technology changes as new IDs provide even better security credentials. In financial transactions, we could see credit card giants like Mastercard and Visa opening some areas of their cards for third party applications, which will see more financial companies seeking to offer more services.
Technology will also converge more driven mainly by cell phone carriers. “Cell phone companies have invested a lot of money in infrastructure and are now seeking to provide more services through their networks,” said Radstaak.