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As an experienced negotiator, CEO
sees rosy prospects for biometric verification cards
Privacy protection, national security and the evolution of e-currency
are equally important in this increasingly digitalized era, says the head
of e-Smart Technologies, Inc. and its government services affiliate Homeland
Defense Inc.
"Super smart cards represent the natural evolution of the preceding technologies, finally, into a secure biometric verification technology for payments and identity verification which all agree are critically important today with the rise in identity theft, financial fraud and terrorist attacks," said Mary A. Grace, president and CEO of e-Smart.
E-Smart Technologies Inc. is an integrated security solution company that develops an on-card fingerprint sensor and module standardized for ISO (International Standard Organization) 7816 and ISO 14443. Headquartered in Silicon Valley, it has its business offices in New York and Washington D.C. and its R&D center in Hawaii.
E-Smart Korea Inc., established in 2003, is the Korean subsidiary and Asian headquarters of the company. Besides Korea, e-Smart is currently operating in China, Indonesia and Singapore, focusing on national identity, finance, transportation and healthcare.
Last year the company announced strategic alliances with MYbi Co. Ltd., Korea's leading e-cash company for public transportation and micro payments. On July 25, e-Smart delivered the first of its five million eSmart-MYbi super smart cards to the Busan Mayor at a ceremony sponsored by the Busan city government, the Busan Bank, Busan Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Busan Bus Association and Busan Urban Transit Authority. Starting from Busan, the card will be used at nine other major cities covered by MYbi and gradually end up in Seoul in the very near future, said the 63-year-old CEO.
Since 1997, the CEO has served as chairman, president and chief executive officer of Intermarket Ventures, Inc., an affiliate of the company. In 1996, she served as the founder and a director of China Hi Tech American Telecommunications, Ltd., a corporation engaged in international telecommunication. In 1993, she participated in contracts for installing wireless local loop and the laying of fiber optic cable in Sichuan Province, the largest province in China, as a founding partner and director of Asian Infrastructure Development Co., Ltd. and Solution Technologies, Ltd.
Over the customers' worries and reluctance to use biometric verification cards, she said "First, customers must be informed of the facts about e-Smart super smart cards' biometric system. As currently being deployed with MYbi Co., Ltd. in Busan, there's absolutely no database of fingerprints that is not on the card and no information that can be accessed and used from the card."
"e-Smart's super smart card is constructed in such a way as to be counterfeit proof, tamper proof and operating in a completely self-contained environment without the need or use of any external database or information network to make its biometric verification," she added.
Grace also commented on the prospects of e-currency. "Paper money is disappearing. Forging IDs when you pay on the Web has surpassed counterfeiting cash. And because it is so much more convenient to use cards than cash, paper money will be all obsolete, dead," she said.
She predicted that the smart card will go a long way to catapulting the banking sectors into future security. Counterfeiting cash and money laundering will go away. And banks will save a lot of money by cutting off all financial fraud.
Asked why the company chose Korea as the company's Asian hub, she said "Korea is one of the IT leaders in the world. And it has extremely qualified personnel, virtual complete high speed digital access afforded to its population and a host of services the super smart card can offer to network users, in addition to point of sale terminal services among others."
"And the fact that we found a great partner, MYbi Co. Ltd., and a large population of people in Busan and nearby are already accustomed to the benefits of using chip cards and radio frequency identification technologies," she added.
By Hwang Si-young
"Super smart cards represent the natural evolution of the preceding technologies, finally, into a secure biometric verification technology for payments and identity verification which all agree are critically important today with the rise in identity theft, financial fraud and terrorist attacks," said Mary A. Grace, president and CEO of e-Smart.
E-Smart Technologies Inc. is an integrated security solution company that develops an on-card fingerprint sensor and module standardized for ISO (International Standard Organization) 7816 and ISO 14443. Headquartered in Silicon Valley, it has its business offices in New York and Washington D.C. and its R&D center in Hawaii.
E-Smart Korea Inc., established in 2003, is the Korean subsidiary and Asian headquarters of the company. Besides Korea, e-Smart is currently operating in China, Indonesia and Singapore, focusing on national identity, finance, transportation and healthcare.
Last year the company announced strategic alliances with MYbi Co. Ltd., Korea's leading e-cash company for public transportation and micro payments. On July 25, e-Smart delivered the first of its five million eSmart-MYbi super smart cards to the Busan Mayor at a ceremony sponsored by the Busan city government, the Busan Bank, Busan Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Busan Bus Association and Busan Urban Transit Authority. Starting from Busan, the card will be used at nine other major cities covered by MYbi and gradually end up in Seoul in the very near future, said the 63-year-old CEO.
Since 1997, the CEO has served as chairman, president and chief executive officer of Intermarket Ventures, Inc., an affiliate of the company. In 1996, she served as the founder and a director of China Hi Tech American Telecommunications, Ltd., a corporation engaged in international telecommunication. In 1993, she participated in contracts for installing wireless local loop and the laying of fiber optic cable in Sichuan Province, the largest province in China, as a founding partner and director of Asian Infrastructure Development Co., Ltd. and Solution Technologies, Ltd.
Over the customers' worries and reluctance to use biometric verification cards, she said "First, customers must be informed of the facts about e-Smart super smart cards' biometric system. As currently being deployed with MYbi Co., Ltd. in Busan, there's absolutely no database of fingerprints that is not on the card and no information that can be accessed and used from the card."
"e-Smart's super smart card is constructed in such a way as to be counterfeit proof, tamper proof and operating in a completely self-contained environment without the need or use of any external database or information network to make its biometric verification," she added.
Grace also commented on the prospects of e-currency. "Paper money is disappearing. Forging IDs when you pay on the Web has surpassed counterfeiting cash. And because it is so much more convenient to use cards than cash, paper money will be all obsolete, dead," she said.
She predicted that the smart card will go a long way to catapulting the banking sectors into future security. Counterfeiting cash and money laundering will go away. And banks will save a lot of money by cutting off all financial fraud.
Asked why the company chose Korea as the company's Asian hub, she said "Korea is one of the IT leaders in the world. And it has extremely qualified personnel, virtual complete high speed digital access afforded to its population and a host of services the super smart card can offer to network users, in addition to point of sale terminal services among others."
"And the fact that we found a great partner, MYbi Co. Ltd., and a large population of people in Busan and nearby are already accustomed to the benefits of using chip cards and radio frequency identification technologies," she added.
By Hwang Si-young
©2006 e-Smart Technologies, Inc.