ACTIVCARD DIGITAL SIGNATURE AND SMART CARD-BASED ID SOLUTION RECEIVES EEMA AWARD FOR EXCELLENCE IN SECURE ELECTRONIC BUSINESS
SpainÂ’s Public Works Organization Re-Engineers Plan Approval Process Using ActivCard Gold Smart Card Middleware to Bridge Security and Cost Savings
(PRWEB) October 12, 2003
ACTIVCARD DIGITAL SIGNATURE AND SMART CARD-BASED ID SOLUTION RECEIVES EEMA AWARD FOR EXCELLENCE IN SECURE ELECTRONIC BUSINESS
SpainÂ’s Public Works Organization Re-Engineers Plan Approval Process Using ActivCard Gold Smart Card Middleware to Bridge Security and Cost Savings
Fremont, California and Staines, UK – October 9, 2003 – ActivCard (NASDAQ: ACTI, a leading global provider of Secure Digital Identity and Authentication solutions, today announced that EEMA (the independent European association for e-Business) has honoured ActivCard with its 2003 Award for Excellence in Secure Electronic Business. The award recognizes the Spanish Ministry of Public Works’, Colegio de Ingenieros de Caminos, Canales y Puertos (CICCP), implementation of the ActivCard Gold multi-application smart card-based authentication and digital signature software solution.
“This is precisely the kind of project that deserves acclaim,” commented EEMA’s chairman David Goodman. “The ActivCard – CICCP project combines innovation, pioneering technology and demonstrable business benefits that exemplify the spirit of the EEMA Award for Excellence in Secure Electronic Business. Furthermore, implementing secure cryptographic applications with the portability of a smart card, addresses a critical need in the engineering sector by providing support for multiple computing platforms and a widely dispersed membership.”
CICCP sought to provide its member engineers with an efficient and secure electronic signature solution to expedite the plan review and approval process for public works projects throughout the 19 provinces of Spain. In keeping with its mission of ensuring safe and secure transportation, communications, energy and port construction, the organization chose ActivCard to secure the foundation of their smart card-based ID card and business process improvement project. The 20,000 CICCP engineers will be issued a photo ID smart card in the form of a membership badge that consolidates their identity credentials and stores their individual digital certificate private keys.
“Our CICCP engineers handle over 20 million plan review cycles per year, and the previous system of paper-based signing of blueprints had proven to be cumbersome and time consuming. A single bridge construction project, for instance, would typically require 12 copies of the plans and 8000 pages that needed a separate signature and physical stamp from the CICCP-certified engineer,” stated Emilio Marin, chief technology officer of CICCP. “With ActivCard client software, our users simply insert their smart card into a reader and the approval process is documented instead via an x.509 certificate-based digital signature embedded with Adobe PDF documents and condensed into one CD or DVD. We have also dramatically reduced the space required to physically store project plans, and anticipate that our initial technology investment will result in a savings of over $90 million in the first year alone.”
ActivCard Gold smart card middleware installed on the desktop ensures the secure communication of the PKI transaction, and enables the private keys to be generated on the card rather than on the vulnerable hard drive. By storing the private keys within the secure cryptographic environment of the smart card chip, organizations deploying the ActivCard digital signature solutions gain the three benefits of:
Enhanced Security with ActivCard reinforcing the fundamental security of PKI by requiring two-factor user authentication to access the private keys for digital signature;
Mobility of the credit-card sized smart card that ensures a userÂ’s digital signature credentials are portable for both local or remote use with any PC or laptop that has ActivCard Gold client software;
Non-repudiation for documenting legal approval and affirming that transactions are valid binding, and irrevocable, since the keys used for digital signature remain under the sole control of the user securely stored in the smart card.
Interfacing transparently with ActivCard Gold, ActivCard partner ipsCA has developed a digital signature plug-in, U-Sign PDF, based on certificate technology from Microsoft 2000 CA, for Adobe Acrobat software.
“We’re a non-profit organization with members dispersed across a large geographic area, and using a diversity of computing platforms,” added Emilio Marin of CICCP. “We’re committed to delivering technology solutions that optimise the time and skills of our engineers. ActivCard Gold is the only solution that allows us to offer a uniform smart card software and digital signature solution that’s effective across the IT infrastructure of 20,000 CICCP members – regardless of whether they do their work on Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X, Linux, or Sun Solaris. ActivCard’s ease of installation and convenience has enabled us to quickly and efficiently deploy to 4000 users already.”
“ActivCard Gold enables organizations to meet the requirements of digital signature legislation and industry-initiatives which are driving the adoption of paperless business processes,” said Marc Hudavert, ActivCard vice president of EMEA sales. “Global recognition of digital certificates and PKI as valid and efficient methods of completing legal agreements and commercial transactions is growing across governments, enterprise, healthcare, and financial services. The CICCP project illustrates the power of smart card-based solutions to electronically sign documents and forms with the combined benefits of mobility, reduced cost and security.”
More detail about the solution is included in the full Case Study document available at: www. activcard. com/digital_signature_casestudy. pdf (http://www. activcard. com/digital_signature_casestudy. pdf )
About ActivCard
ActivCard, www. activcard. com, is a leading global provider of Secure Digital Identity and Authentication software for remote access, secure sign-on and digital ID card solutions. Our scalable IDM and strong authentication solutions are trusted by organizations – from enterprise to governments around the world. ActivCard solutions deliver maximum Return On Identity™ (ROI) through increased security, reduced cost, and user convenience. The modular product design allows our customers to add capabilities as required, preserving their investment.
About CICCP
Chartered by the Spanish Ministry of Public Works, the Colegio de Ingenieros de Caminos, Canales, y Puertos (CICCP) is the official civil engineering organization of certified engineers working throughout Spain. With over 20,000 affiliated engineers, CICCP members are responsible for planning, designing, reviewing building, and approving the public works plans and specifications for SpainÂ’s public infrastructure.
About EEMA
For 16 years, EEMA, www. eema. org, has been EuropeÂ’s leading independent, non-profit e-Business association, working with its European members, governmental bodies, standards organizations and e-Business initiatives throughout Europe to further e-Business technology and legislation. EEMAÂ’s remit is to educate and inform 200 Member organizations (and over 1,500 Member contacts) on the latest developments and technologies, at the same time enabling Members of the association to compare views and ideas. Examples of organizations taking advantage of EEMA membership are Unilever, Volvo, Shell, Royal Mail, KPMG, Prime Minister's Office Hungary, Sun Microsystems, IBM, Microsoft, HP, Posten Sverige, Computer Associates, Ministerio de Trabajo y Asuntos Sociales, Barclays Bank and Norwegian Government Administration Services.
ActivCard is a registered trademark and ActivCard Gold and Return on Identity are trademarks of ActivCard in the United States and/or other countries. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners in the United States and/or other countries.
CONTACTS
ActivCard Corporate
Julie White
Tel: +1 (510) 574 1708
Jwhite@activcard. com
ActivCard UK
Simon Wakely
Tel: +44 (0) 1784 898 072
Swakely@activcard. com
Consort PR - UK
Tony Bovill
+44 1344 626171
Tony@consortpr. co. uk
