StepNexus Joins GlobalPlatform
01 November, 2006 - StepNexus, has joined the membership of international smart card standards body, GlobalPlatform, adding its voice to the collaborative work of creating specifications for interoperability across the entire smart card infrastructure and to actively participate in how those specifications are driven to market worldwide.
StepNexus immediately joins the Card Committee, where it will work cooperatively within the GlobalPlatform Consortium to accelerate the convergence of standards. It will gain full integration and support for MULTOS™ and STEP™ (Secure Trusted Environment Provisioning) secure issuance and content distribution standard methods within GlobalPlatform Specifications. Adding StepNexus technologies to GlobalPlatform will deliver new options, increase quality and provide more flexibility to all stakeholders and end users of smart cards.
John Wood, StepNexus CEO comments: "A healthy industry needs a good balance of standardization, collaboration, and competition. GlobalPlatform, the MULTOS Consortium and the JavaCard Forum are all important contributors to the standardization and collaboration process as are technology solution developers, promoters, licensees and service providers like StepNexus and SUN. It is our aspiration and expectation that participation within GlobalPlatform will increase of GlobalPlatform’s overall capabilities and accelerate the adoption of proven, successful trust and commerce models to both existing and forthcoming implementations."
StepNexus will also join other member organizations by serving in an advisory capacity on GlobalPlatform’s Advisory Council. The Council not only proposes work tasks and initiatives for the association, but also serves as a consultant body to the GlobalPlatform Executive Director and Board of Directors with regard to business and implementation issues.
Bob Beer, GlobalPlatform Chairman, adds: "StepNexus is a strategic addition to our membership. They are committed to bringing not only resources to GlobalPlatform to assist in our technical work, but also resources and the energy level to significantly contribute to our efforts to drive adoption of our specifications to worldwide markets. We look forward to witnessing the positive contributions they will no doubt make."
For further information please contact:
GlobalPlatform
Lee’ann Connell
Iseepr
+44 (0) 113 274 5252
leeann@iseepr.co.uk
StepNexus
Kevin Schader (USA)
GolinHarris
+1 (415) 274-7911
kschader@golinharris.com
About GlobalPlatform
GlobalPlatform is a member driven organization with world-wide cross-industry representation. GlobalPlatform is the leading, international association, focused on establishing and maintaining interoperable specifications for single and multi-application smart cards, acceptance devices and systems infrastructure that deliver benefits to issuers, service providers and technology suppliers.
These specifications are known as the standard for smart card infrastructure, thanks to their balance of technical superiority and business justification.
GlobalPlatform specifications are freely available and have been adopted in Europe, North America, Asia and Australia by many public and private bodies. Currently, there are over 40 GlobalPlatform-based smart card implementations world-wide and approximately 100 million GlobalPlatform smart cards and more than 1 billion GSM implementations worldwide.
GlobalPlatform is an independent, not-for-profit organization and its strategy is defined and prioritized by a Board of Directors. GlobalPlatform is currently chaired by Robert E. Beer, Vice President Business Development, Datacard Group, and vice-chaired by Marc Kekicheff, Vice President Product Technology, Visa International. Kevin Gillick serves the membership on a full-time basis as its Executive Director.
About StepNexus
StepNexus provides pioneering technology solutions for securing devices and distributing protected content. StepNexus governs the STEP™ (Secure Trusted Environment Provisioning) standard methods for secure device issuance and control, secure package content loading and distribution, and application privacy management, and offers services and products associated with STEP™ and STEP™-enabled platforms. StepNexus also works with partners that implement device operating systems and applications to STEP™ specifications, including Nectar.NET implementers, the industry-backed MULTOS™ Consortium, and other STEP™-enabled solution providers. StepNexus ensures that devices meet specific security and interoperability requirements to receive STEP™ security validations. StepNexus has more than 100 issuance partners and has enabled more than 65 million STEP™-secured devices among governments, financial institutions, mobile carriers, and enterprise IT organizations, including notable projects of the Hong Kong National ID, Saudi Residential ID, and Turkish Military ID.
