At Rambus, we create cutting-edge semiconductor and IP products, providing industry-leading chips and silicon IP to make data faster and safer.
Writing for SemiconductorEngineering, Ed Sperling reports that long-awaited DDR4 rollouts have begun. Indeed, a slew of consumer-centric motherboards packing Intel’s X99 chipset and DDR4 memory were reviewed by AnandTech’s Ian Cutress in late September.
In addition, a number of companies recently introduced a range of servers powered by Intel’s new 18-core Xeon E5-2600 v3 (Grantley) chip. The servers – designed by Hewlett-Packard, Dell, Lenovo and IBM – are loaded with DDR4 memory.
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security is currently investigating a number of cases of suspected cybersecurity flaws in medical devices and hospital equipment. As Reuter’s reports, products under the spotlight include infusion pumps and implantable heart devices.
Payment credential management specialist, Bell ID, has launched its Tokenization Manager software. The solution will be used by card issuers and merchants to enhance security and limit fraud by facilitating tokenized payments.
EMV payment tokenization is the process of replacing a personal account number (PAN) with a unique identifier, known as a ‘payment token’. The payment token can only be used in a specific domain such as a merchant’s online website, or channel for example a mobile device to make a near-field-communication (NFC) payment.
Pat Curran, Executive Chairman at Bell ID, explains: “As an example, tokenization replaces the need for merchants or digital wallet operators to store customers’ card data. As the payment tokens are created for a designated purpose, they are very unappealing to fraudsters as the data stolen cannot be used more widely. Tokenization will therefore prevent large scale attacks on merchants for card data, keeping confidential, sensitive information out of reach and helping to increase consumer trust. This is very important following a number of large scale data breaches in the US over the past year.”
Bell ID’s Tokenization Manager, which has already been deployed worldwide to support mobile NFC payments, provides Token Service Provider functionality in line with the EMV Payment Tokenization Specification – Technical Framework v1.0. It will be used by token requesters such as card issuers to manage payment tokens, digital wallet providers to deliver tokens to support mobile NFC payments, and merchants to replace card on-file storage of PANs.
The solution operates and manages a secure repository, referred to as a token vault, which maintains a link between the payment token and real PAN. It also generates the payment token and associated cryptographic data, provides de-tokenization services for transaction authorization and clearance, and delivers access to securely issue and manage the lifecycle of the token.
“The ability to manage the payment token securely and efficiently is very important, as it can be ‘unlinked’ from the PAN if the token is no longer required. For example if a mobile handset is lost or stolen or a customer closes their account with the merchant,” explains Curran. “We have leveraged our long-standing experience in this space to create a product that provides a seamless user experience for our customers and consequently end users, whilst increasing the security of mobile payment credentials. It is measures such as these that will pave the way for the mass market adoption of mobile payments.”
To find out more about Bell ID Tokenization Manager, visit the Bell ID website. Bell ID will also be present at Money 2020 and Cartes offering a comprehensive demo of the solution – schedule a meeting via our website.
October 2014
Rambus Ecebs gains strong foothold in rail through new HOPS contract award
Rail Settlement Plan Ltd, the company representing UK rail operators, has awarded a contract to Rambus Ecebs to provide the technology and back office transaction services required to deliver ‘smart’ ticketing infrastructure and products to the rail network surrounding London.
Rambus Ecebs will install its market-leading Paragon HOPS software as a shared service that franchises can use in the South East of England. The software is critical to the operation of the whole scheme planned for the region’s rail network, which aims to introduce smart ticketing for all rail commuters in the South East of England in one, ITSO-compliant system.
The Department for Transport’s South East Flexible Ticketing (SEFT) scheme involves franchises currently run by 12 train operators including Govia Thameslink Railway, East Coast and Virgin West Coast and covers an area that includes Milton Keynes in the North, Brighton in the South, Reading in the West, and Dover in the East.
Rambus Ecebs technology will enable smart ticketing to work across thousands of devices including railway station gates, validators and ticket machines. The system will enable rail passengers to use ITSO-compliant smart tickets to travel to London and then also use these same tickets within London at national rail stations.
Russell McCullagh, Managing Director of Rambus Ecebs, said: “This could be a watershed moment for the integration of smart ticketing in the UK rail industry. The group of passengers this system is targeting makes a third of all rail journeys in the UK. Paragon HOPS is the only system operating in the UK to have proven its reliability at managing high volume transactions on a regular basis. It should give other train operators confidence that they too can benefit from the infrastructure that is being put in place as part of the SEFT smart ticketing scheme.”
While the scheme is initially based in the South East of England, it has the potential to be expanded all over the UK as Government plans to introduce ITSO-based smart ticketing to improve travel for all UK passengers come into effect.
The initial four-year contract between Ecebs and RSP includes an option to extend.
RSP provides and manages a number of shared services on behalf of franchised rail operators ranging from the provision of ticket stock to IT services such as the allocation of industry revenue from smart ticketing systems. All rail operators are working together with Government to provide the infrastructure required to operate an ITSO-compliant smart ticketing solution.
The deal provides Rambus Ecebs with a strong foothold in the rail industry, building on its existing contracts in place across metro, bus and ferries across the UK. Ecebs already provides smart ticketing solutions in cities outside of London, including Glasgow, Nottingham and Newcastle.
About SEFT
South East Flexible Ticketing (SEFT) is a DfT sponsored scheme, approved by the Chancellor of the Exchequer as part of the Growth Agenda in 2011. It is being delivered by the Department working with The Association of Train Operating Companies, and TfL.
Its objective is to provide passengers with a modern smartcard ticketing service which both reflects passengers’ travel patterns and can respond to their future travel and ticket needs.
The SEFT scheme will roll out with 12 train operating companies and Transport for London through a staged introduction of “smart ticketing” throughout the South East, maximising economies of scale through cross-industry collaboration.
Smart ticketing is already used in some parts of the UK. One of the most used in the UK is London’s Oyster Scheme. For passengers using season tickets, smart ticketing provides a more durable ticket and overcomes one of the fundamental flaws of paper ticketing in that lost or damaged tickets can be more easily replaced.
Smart ticketing can also offer passengers:
1. Greater convenience, through touch-in technology, longer-lasting “tickets” and greatly reduced ticket and gate queues
2. Greater value for money (eg by capping the amount they pay, or replacing several tickets with a more efficient one, eg a travelcard or carnet)
3. An opportunity for more flexible ticketing products in the future, that could not work on paper-based tickets.
Writing for the Harvard Business Review, H. James Wilson confirms that the evolving Internet of Things (IoT) will prompt companies to place more of an emphasis on understanding and developing an intuitive user experience (UX).
“As the IoT expands to include people, companies that create value will need to understand user experience, psychological, and even some philosophical concepts much more deeply than they do now,” he explained. “They must learn how people really interact with things and why those things matter.”
Worldwide semiconductor revenue remains on track to reach $338 billion in 2014, a 7.2 percent increase from 2013, and up from the previous quarter’s forecast of 6.7 percent growth. According to Gartner analysts, DRAM leads all semiconductors in 2014 with revenue growth of 26.3 percent – and is expected to reach all-time revenue high of $44.1 billion for the year.
