Secure Technology Alliance Highlights Significant Accomplishments, Council Contributions in 2020

PRINCETON JUNCTION, N.J., January 13, 2021 – The Secure Technology Alliance today shared significant progress in 2020 in stimulating understanding, adoption and widespread application of secure technology across markets.

Throughout the year, the Alliance and its industry councils provided current and in-depth guidance and educational deliverables on advancing security technologies and topics. This included publishing education and outreach material, hosting webinars and virtual education sessions, and developing industry positions on key government and private initiatives.

“The robust participation and efforts from our councils and members this year not only spoke to their dedication to the Alliance, but also to staying on top of current trends, innovations and changes in the industry,” said Jason Bohrer, executive director of the Secure Technology Alliance. “Now into 2021, we’ll continue to focus on providing education in constantly evolving markets. Exciting new opportunities like mobile driver’s licenses and other secure digital identity methods will stay top-of-mind at the Alliance.”

Highlights from 2020 include:

Maintaining Industry Engagement with Virtual Events

The Alliance began the year with the successful Payments Summit, one of the most anticipated payments events in the industry, in Salt Lake City in February. Despite the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent cancellation of all following in-person events, the Alliance hosted well-attended webinar and virtual education sessions across a range of emerging technology topics including mobile driver’s licenses (mDLs), electric vehicle (EV) charging payments and more.

Progress in Access Control

The Alliance has long been dedicated to providing guidance to the federal government on implementing secure credentials for physical and logical access control. As part of this, the Access Control council published the Temporary Identity Credentials for Federal Agency Physical Access Control Systems (PACS) white paper to recommend an approach for implementing temporary identity credentials. The council is also currently developing a white paper on the use of mobile devices in access control, to be released later this year.

Acceleration in the Mobile Driver’s License Market

mDLs were a major focus for the Alliance in 2020, with several deliverables created to support and educate industry stakeholders about the technology. This included an mDL information portal, mDLConnection.com, and a comprehensive white paper, executive summary and FAQ on The Mobile Driver’s License (mDL) and Ecosystem. The Alliance also hosted a well-attended four-part webinar series: Introduction to the mDL; mDL Use Cases on Day One and Beyond; Privacy & Trust in the mDL Ecosystem; Challenges to the mDL Ecosystem. With 17 different U.S. states in stages of implementation, mDLs will continue to be a focus for the Alliance in 2021.

Innovation in Emerging Payments Technologies

2020 brought significant change in the payments industry, and the Alliance released several resources to guide merchants, issuers and acquirers through emerging technologies and innovations. These included the Electric Vehicle Charging Payment Innovations webinar and white paper, the Dynamic Security Code Cards: A Primer white paper and the Implementation Considerations for Contactless Payment-Enabled Wearables with Secure Elements white paper. A white paper on the emerging Mobility as a Service (MaaS) ecosystem is expected later this year.

Advancements in Security Innovations

Security is more critical than ever, and with major advancements in the quantum computing space, the Alliance hosted a virtual education session, Applied Crypto Symposium: Cybersecurity in the Age of Quantum Computing. The session discussed the impact of quantum computing on critical digital infrastructure, NIST standardization efforts, strategies for getting ready for the post-quantum transition and the impact of post-quantum cryptography.

Supporting Forward Movement with Industry Comments

As part of its mission to drive adoption of technologies that provide better security and privacy and to support Federal identity initiatives, the Alliance provided industry comments on the TWIC NexGen specification, and has comments currently in process on NIST draft FIPS 201-3, Personal Identity Verification (PIV) of Federal Employees and Contractors.

Recognizing Member Contributions

Alliance members are an essential part of the organization’s ability to fulfill its mission and help drive secure technology implementations in the U.S. The Alliance recognized its members’ outstanding contributions in 2020 based on council leadership, project leadership and participation through its annual Honor Roll. To learn more about the Secure Technology Alliance councils, visit https://www.securetechalliance.org/alliance-industry-councils/.

For continuing updates on the Secure Technology Alliance, visit www.securetechalliance.org and follow @SecureTechOrg on Twitter.

About the Secure Technology Alliance

The Secure Technology Alliance is the digital security industry’s premier association. The Alliance brings together leading providers and adopters of end-to-end security solutions designed to protect privacy and digital assets in payments, mobile, identity and access, healthcare, transportation and the emerging Internet of Things (IoT) markets.

The Alliance’s mission is to stimulate understanding, adoption and widespread application of connected digital solutions based on secure chip and other technologies and systems needed to protect data, enable secure authentication and facilitate commerce.

The Alliance is driven by its U.S.-focused member companies. They collaborate by sharing expertise and industry best practices through industry and technology councils, focused events, educational resources, industry outreach, advocacy, training and certification programs. Through participation in the breadth of Alliance activities, members strengthen personal and organizational networks and take away the insights to build the business strategies needed to commercialize secure products and services in this dynamic environment.

For more information, please visit www.securetechalliance.org.

Contact

Adrian Loth and Dana Kringel
Montner Tech PR
203-226-9290
aloth@montner.com
dkringel@montner.com

Related:

• COVID-19: A Message from the Secure Technology Alliance
• Mobile Council
• Industry Councils
• Identity Council