There was a time not too long ago when choosing the card and reader for an access control installation consisted of which proximity reader style from a limited number of suppliers you liked and how many 125 kHz cards or fobs you needed to purchase.

HID Global added FIDO2 authentication to its Crescendo smart cards, enabling them to support the FIDO Alliance industry initiative focused on standards-based “password-less” sign-in. HID Global partnered with Microsoft on this effort.

Identiv Inc. announced the latest addition to its high security credential portfolio, uTrust MD Smart Cards. Providing a comprehensive solution for converged physical and logical access control, Identiv’s uTrust MD Smart Card is the company’s first, comprehensive certificate-based public key infrastructure (PKI) credential for Microsoft Minidriver environments.

Identiv, Inc. is partnering with Corvus Integration, a provider of biometric, identity management, and security solutions. In this partnership, Corvus integrates the Identiv 4501 contact and contactless smart card reader board into its recently launched Corvus Tetrad biometric solution, used for border patrol to enhance security through a combined biometric and smart card solution. The Identiv smart card reader supports the latest security standards, including contact International Organization for Standardization/International Electrotechnical Commission (ISO/IEC) 7816, contactless ISO/IEC 14443 and near field communication (NFC).

The access control credential has for a long time been “stuck” — at least in the U.S. — on one particular technology: proximity.

These all-weather IP66-rated smart card RFID readers feature stainless-steel construction, epoxy-encapsulated electronics, audiovisual feedback, and a modern low-profile design.

Zwipe announced that HID Global’s iCLASS® and 125kHz ProxCard® users can now integrate the Zwipe Access biometric card, eliminating the need to add biometric readers to an existing HID Global®iClass® or Prox-based system.

For decades smart cards and biometrics have been part of the access credentialing conversation. More recently, the potential of mobile credentials on a phone have entered the discussion. But in an industry that has been historically slow to move off the entrenched platforms of proximity or even mag stripe, these discussions have often revolved around the question, ‘What’s next?’ rather than, ‘What’s happening now?’