Page 17 - Security Today, May/June 2021

“Mobile solutions used for access control and building management are creating safer, more secure, and more convenient experiences in the modern workplace. They are also reinforcing the role of trusted identities as a linchpin for more efficient, touch-free and resilient building environments— especially during the COVID-19 pandemic.”
By Stephen Carney
tina has accorded full legal equivalence to the smartphone version of its national identity credential, which it offers within a mobile app to its citizens. Citizens who download the app on their mobile devices can request appointments, receive health information and access credentials such as their driver license.
Mobile credential technology is also poised to support the arrival of vaccine passports in Europe. One government is seeking to use NFC technology and smart cards to validate immunization status. This offers a more secure and accurate way to validate vaccination status than easily forged paper cards.
Tapping the card to a mobile device establishes a secure connection to a health authority’s web service, which sends back a web page displaying real-time vaccination information. These types of solutions fully comply with General Data Protection Reg- ulation (GDPR) privacy requirements, and each time the card is read, its authenticity can be validated using the advanced dy- namic cryptographic features of the smart card’s embedded microprocessor.
makes a lot of sense as we look for ways to eliminate touching things during the glob- al pandemic,” said Santiago Morett, proj- ect manager with the company’s building management firm, Servicon. “HID Mo- bile Access has given us touchless entry and safer building security, which is more important than ever for our tenants.”
Other touchless workplace experiences are enabled through wearable wristbands. One example is the Nymi band which, once authenticated, continuously authen- ticates the identity of the user until it’s re- moved from the wrist. This delivers zero- trust security principles and access control using convenient fingerprint and heartbeat biometrics to users seeking touchless au- thentication.
Organizations that want these touch- free access experiences in both the physi- cal and digital workplaces are increas- ingly taking a cloud-based approach to how they issue and manage the associated identity credentials. This unifies, auto- mates, and simplifies identity issuance and management at a single facility or across any number of distributed office or re- mote work locations. While reducing the need for in-person interactions to issue and manage identities, this approach also improves the visitor experience through reduced wait times and the ability to use self-service badging kiosks.
Safe and Healthy Campuses
University campuses have their own unique requirements. According to Mark Brown, director of Business Services Tech- nology at Vanderbilt University, student safety is the number one priority. “We need to make sure that students are in a safe environment.” The university is using HID’s mobile access credential technol- ogy so the university’s credential holders to use their smartphone, tablet or wearable device to unlock doors.
In addition to delivering building se- curity, management and utilization ben- efits, wireless technologies and Bluetooth beacons have been integral to implement- ing automated physical distancing and contact tracing policies during the global pandemic. Bay State College in Boston
and Taunton, MA, safely brought its students back to its campuses using a digitized contact tracing solution that includes simple HID Bluetooth BEEKs Beacons in the form of badge holder to provide real-time location services. Jef- frey Myers, chief information officer with Bay State College, stated “HID BEEKS beacons are carried by each person on campus as part of our solution that enabled us to safely resume in-person classes and keep our campus operational should isolated parts of our community find themselves infected.”
Additionally, beacons and cloud-based solutions can provide rule-based physical distancing management for immediate in- sights and alerts that help keep employees compliant with safety and sanitation re- quirements to ease the burden of tracking new health and safety procedures.
Government Services
Governments are tapping into the touch- free experience through digital versions of mandatory national identity documents. For example, the government of Argen-
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