[Federal Register Volume 68, Number 66 (Monday, April 7, 2003)]
[Notices]
[Page 16784]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 03-8380]


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DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE

National Institute of Standards and Technology


Announcing a Workshop on Storage and Processor Card-based 
Technologies

AGENCY: National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST).

ACTION: Notice of public workshop.

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SUMMARY: The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) 
announces a workshop to identify current and planned Federal government 
activities and related needs, general issues, existing voluntary 
industry consensus standards, gap areas in standards coverage, and 
industry capabilities in the field of storage and processor card 
technologies. It is anticipated that the workshop will support 
development of a standards roadmap, and a guideline on storage and 
processor card technologies to include multitechnology composition 
issues. The goal of this initial workshop is to develop and exchange 
information on the standards for and capabilities of multitechnology 
storage and processor cards. This workshop is not being held in 
anticipation of a planned procurement activity. The detailed draft 
agenda and supporting documentation for the workshop will be available 
from the NIST Computer Security Resource Center Web site at http://csrc.nist.gov by May 9, 2003.

DATES: The workshop will be held on July 8, 2003, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. 
It is anticipated that this will be a one-day workshop, but provisions 
are being made to support a second day in case the response to this 
announcement supports an expanded agenda.

ADDRESSES: The workshop will be held in the Administration Building 
(Bldg. 101), Green Auditorium, National Institute of Standards and 
Technology, Gaithersburg, MD.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Further information, when available, 
may be obtained from the Computer Security Resource Center Web site at 
http://csrc.nist.gov or by contacting Terry Schwarzhoff or Curt Barker, 
National Institute of Standards and Technology, Building 100 Bureau 
Drive, Stop 8930, Gaithersburg, MD 20899-8930; telephone 301-975-5727; 
Fax 301-948-1233, or e-mail [email protected] or 
[email protected].

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Many technologies, such as optical stripe 
media, barcodes, magnetic stripes, contactless integrated chips, and 
the smart card integrated circuit chip have been implemented on card 
platforms. Voluntary industry consensus standards for many of these 
technologies are already available, but have not been integrated 
(directly or by reference) into one single document for use by federal 
agencies. This roadmap would provide a reference to the existing 
standards for these card technologies and help identify gap areas for 
the wider card technology community. Many card platforms include anti-
counterfeit elements to increase the security of the physical platform. 
Some examples of these are holograms, optical variable devices (OVDs), 
laser etching, and ghost/shadow printing, but again have not been 
addressed in a single document with respect to integration with card 
technologies.
    The General Accounting Office recently issued a report on 
``Progress in Promoting Adoption of Smart Card Technology'' (GAO-03-
144, February 5, 2003). The Report provides a set of Recommendations 
(pp. 35) that reinforce the role of the National Institute of Standards 
and Technology (NIST) in the U.S. Government Smart Card (GSC) program. 
The report recommends that the Director, NIST, continue to improve and 
update the government smart card interoperability specification by 
addressing government-wide standards for additional technologies to 
ensure broad interoperability among federal agency systems. A key NIST 
response to the GAO recommendation is to develop a guideline that 
addresses applicable standards for multiple technologies that can 
coexist on card platforms.
    NIST will lead an effort to develop a document/technical report as 
a roadmap/guideline, in coordination with other agencies and private 
industry.
    The initial workshop is being held to identify the state of 
candidate technologies and to provide the basis for development of 
guidelines. Workshop topics are planned to include:

--Current government card-related activities/needs,
--card-based technology attributes,
--industry activities
--card related voluntary industry consensus standards
--and multitechnology interoperability issues.

    Advance registration is required. To register, please fax your 
name, address, telephone, fax and e-mail address to 301-926-2733 (Attn: 
Card-Based Technology Workshop) by June 9, 2003. Registration by 
electronic mail should be addressed to [email protected]. 
Registration questions should be addressed to Vickie Harris on 301-975-
2934. Due to NIST security regulations regarding access to this site, 
registration will not be available at the door. The workshop will be 
open to the public.

Authority

    This work effort is being initiated pursuant to NIST's 
responsibilities under the Federal Information Security Management Act 
of 2002, the Information Technology Management Reform Act of 1996, 
Executive Order 13011, and OMB Circular A-130.

    Dated: April 1, 2003.
Karen H. Brown,
Deputy Director.
[FR Doc. 03-8380 Filed 4-4-03; 8:45 am]
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