Different Types of Smart Cards

December 22, 2010 by Leave a Comment

Smart cards allow information to be shared quickly, easily and securely. The portable storage method is a card made from plastic and usually the size of a credit card with an embedded microprocessor inside. There are two main types of smart cards out there, both are different in the way the information is shared. These two types are contact cards and contactless cards.

These two types are also called chip cards because the microprocessor is covered in many panels of gold foil and looks like a small chip on the card. These cards are sometimes included on the plastic card the size of a credit card, but these smart cards can also be much smaller like the SIM cards found in cell phones, particularly in Europe.

Contactless cards use a radio frequency between the reader and the card to share information. This means the cards only have to be in proximity of the reader to complete transactions. An example of this type of card is an entry card carried by users to get into a building that is simply swiped in front of a reader for a user to gain access to the building.

Contact cards are the most common type of smart cards. They too have the foil covered chip. They work because electrical contacts connect when the card is inserted into a reader like when an ATM card is put in an ATM machine. Contact cards are found in many applications, like in credit cards, although most credit cards in the United States do not use this type of technology. United States credit cards usually use magnetic stripe technology.

Smart cards are an easy way to share information and allow users to carry a great deal of secure date in a pocket or wallet. There are more than one type of smart card.

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Pacific Biomarkers Gains Recognition for Growth

November 29, 2010 by Leave a Comment
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Every year, Technology Fast 500 ranks the top 500 fastest growing American businesses working in telecommunications, media, technology, and life sciences. Seattle-based Pacific Biomarkers, Inc. recently announced that it has made the list for its fiscal year revenue growth for 2005 to 2009. During this time, the company grew 237 percent, and it contributes its success to expanding its menu of products, pursuing partnerships, treating customers right, and upgrading its infrastructure to handle the growth.

Established in 1989, Pacific Biomarkers offers biomarker laboratory and clinical biomarker services to clients in the diagnostic, biotech, and pharmaceutical industries. Many of these manufacturers use Pacific Biomarker’s products in clinical trials for conditions, such as musculoskeletal diseases, obesity, cardiovascular problems, and diabetes.

Pacific Biomarkers operates under accreditation from the College of American Pathologist, New York State, and Lipid Standardization Program. Under this accreditation, the company provides biomarker assay testing, as well as development. Included in these services are immunogenicity testing, mass spectrometry, and cell-base assays.

CEO Ron Helm responded to the award by crediting three basic factors for the company success. First, Pacific Biomarkers made customer service a priority. This included expanding connections and finding ways to take care of existing clients. Second, the company sought out new technology to keep its infrastructure ready to handle the influx of business. Third, the company aggressively created a presence in the market by forming partnerships.

While many companies succumbed to poor market conditions spawned by a poor economy in 2007 to 2009, Pacific Biomarkers found innovative ways to grow. Many view that as a reward in and of itself. Technology Fast 500 uses information from Form 10-K as well as fiscal reports from the companies in consideration for its award.

For Pacific Biomarkers the growth and the recognition indicate the company is on the right path to continue its growth trend.

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NYSE Technologies Enters Agreement With CSTK InVenture

November 27, 2010 by Leave a Comment
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On October 27, 2010, NYSE Technologies announced its plan to form an alliance with CSTK InVenture. NYSE Technologies is the world’s largest provider of trading solutions for the electronics industry. It is a part of NYSE Euronext. CSTK InVenture is an advisory firm specializing in technology. The joint venture will create a new powerhouse in the traditional trading market and will combine experts in a variety of fields, including real estate and infrastructure.

The CEO of NYSE Technologies, Stanley Young, said the companies plan to use the agreement to create a business that is the premier provider in its field, which focuses on services technology. This doesn’t come as a surprise to many in the industry who have been watching NYSE Technologies. CSTK InVenture formed in 2008 under the direction of NYSE Euronext, which pulled together experts from two companies for advisory services for financial institutions. CSTK InVenture combined advisors from CS Technology and KLG Advisors.

CSTK InVenture took on the role of advising NYSE Euronext in everything from business support to technology development to real estate transactions. The agreement between NYSE Technologies really just combines two of the companies under NYSE Euronext’s umbrella into one big happy family.

Both companies seem to be happy with the new situation, and leading personnel from each company has taken the time to address press about the news. In these press releases, the companies stress their hopes that the new arrangement will open new doors for both businesses and allow each sector to influence the other in a positive way. Both CSTK InVenture and NYSE Technologies stress their plans to offer improved (and unique) business value for their clients while offering them tools to improve the bottom line.

So far, it seems like the new arrangement will also provide clients to a wider array of services coming from one company, which could help improve business for NYSE Technologies.

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A Statistical Look at Smart Cards and Cybercrime

November 23, 2010 by Leave a Comment
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More and more people in the world are switching to a cashless form of payment, and the most common cashless forms happened to be connected to plastic. Whether it is a smart card or a credit card, those little thin strips of plastic have everything a person needs to buy anything from a gallon of milk to a new car.

With walking around without cash has some attractive properties, there is a dark side s well. According to the Reserve Bank, electronic payments have increased by 35 percent while check use has decreased by three percent. Those numbers may not make an impression, but the next one should. Credit card fraud for a single year reached almost $150 million. One cyber gang netted $70 million by stealing from a variety of mid-sized businesses in America. Authorities believe the gang is actually located in Easter Europe.

This large amount of money indicates that things need to change; it’s simply too easy for thieves to hack into accounts. Stealing money this way has become so easy, it has surpassed the monetary amount stolen through traditional crime. It very well could take credit card provider, smart card manufacturers, and law enforcement agencies working together to find a way to halt this type of theft.

The use of the Internet in connection with these crimes makes it more difficult to track thieves and has earned the method a variety of nicknames, including daylight robbery, ecrime, cybercrime, and electronic theft. Of course, when one considers that these nicknames also extend beyond credit card and smart card theft, the issue becomes even larger.

One solution for the future may be to implement tracking tools for smart cards and credit cards to prevent fraudulent use. Consumers can also take steps to ensure they don’t give out the information by accident by using anti-virus protection to prevent hacking attempts.

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Can Smart Cards Offer Identity Theft Protection?

November 14, 2010 by Leave a Comment
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Many people worry that Smart Cards will not offer enough security to prevent thieves from taking all of the information that they need to steal someone’s identity. This concern makes a lot of sense in some ways. After all, if you have all of your information in one place, it could be easy for a thief to steal it and do whatever he wants.

Isn’t having everything in the same location a bad idea?

That depends on whether individuals choose to use security software that will prevent other people from accessing their information. For instance, consumers could choose to download software that only certain individuals can use. If security software forces each person accessing the Smart Card to answer extremely private questions, then thieves would have a much harder time stealing information.

This is similar to what bank ATMs do. When you insert your bank card into an ATM, the machine asks you for a PIN that identifies you as the right person for the account. Without the correct PIN, you have no way to access the information.

Is it possible for thieves to get around this and similar protections? It could be possible. That’s one of the reasons that technology keeps moving forward at such a fast clip. Shortly after a company develops new security protection, hackers start tearing it apart to find ways that they can access information without the proper identification.

So far, security specialists have been able to stay a step ahead of most hackers. There are a few extremely talented individuals who can perform amazing feats with computers. Those individuals, however, are not interested in stealing your identity. They work on much bigger projects. As long as common people can protect themselves from common criminals, they are as safe as they could ever hope to be. The Smart Card takes this protection to a new level.

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Choosing the Best Financial Options

October 27, 2010 by Leave a Comment
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During this time of economic crisis, many investors like yourself are looking for high yield, low risk investments. This is easier said than done. Many high yield investments are risky, very risky. When your cash flow and risk tolerance investing are low, then high yield investments do not seem as promising. But low risk investments seem to take forever to mature and yield substantial benefits. So, what is a cautious investor like yourself to do? Perhaps, you should consider investing in municipal bonds.  With a municipal bond, you can help your community and establish a solid financial situation for you and your family.

When considering a municipal bond, you should consider how much the municipal bond yields annually and quarterly. According to the tax laws, any city, town must disclose all financial risks before your invest. This means you should have a good idea before investing how much return your municipal bond yields. This also means you can assess your comfort level when it comes to risk on your municipal loans as well. When discussing this investment with your financial advisor, you should always be up front and honest about how much risk you are comfortable taking on. Even if your municipal bond yields well each year, the risk involved may be more than what you are comfortable with during this economic crisis. But if you do not disclose your misgivings, your financial advisor will not be able to help you plan correctly.

Your muni bond yields well this year, you should also consider that it may not do as well next year. Being realistic with your expectations for a municipal bond yield will help. You will protect yourself from being disappointed due to unrealistic goals and expectations for your municipal bond yields.

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7 Beginner Email Tips in Business

October 9, 2010 by Leave a Comment
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If you’re looking to launch your business, and you hope to rely on email to help with your marketing campaign, you need to have your act together. The Internet can be your best tool, but it can also work against you. What determines that is how you handle yourself online. Consider these email tips to build your business through email and help maintain a solid reputation.

1. Respond to emails quickly. It’s a good habit to respond to all of your emails by the end of the business day. That shows that you’re professional and you’re ready to take care of the task at hand.
2. Take grammar and spelling seriously. Technology has changed the way many people write on the computer. It makes abbreviations more common, and typos can happen to anyone. However, if you want your business to look professional you need to write professionally. Use spell check and grammar check on every email.
3. Choose an appropriate subject for each email. Many professionals will refer back to emails later if they need more information. If every email you send has the subject of, “Hey!”it could make that difficult. Choose a subject that’s short but still addresses the content of the email.
4. Address the recipient of the email somewhere in the email. Every business owner wants his or her customers know that you care. An easy way to show that is by using the name in the email.
5. Provide your contact information in each email. You can easily do this by adding a signature line that includes your name, website, phone number, fax and email.
6. Use the appropriate case for each letter. Customers don’t appreciate emails typed in all lower case or in all capital letters.
7. Include previous messages when you reply. This allows your customers to see what exactly you’re replying to, just in case they need to refresh their memory about the subject.

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Must-Have Internet Marketing Tools

October 5, 2010 by Leave a Comment
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Tools that every business owner should have if he or she wants to market the business on the Internet are listed below.

Email
If you’re marketing your business online, you hope to garner a lot of responses. That means you need an email account that can handle large quantities. You may also receive large attachments, meaning you need email hosting that can sustain large file sizes. Check with your web hosting company to see if they offer an email plan with your Internet page. Or, you might check for free email accounts that come with extra storage.

Auto Responder
In the early stages of your Internet marketing plan, you can probably reply to emails on your own. However, as emails start piling in, you’ll realize you need help. The best way to handle large quantities of emails is with an auto responder. Each email received by the company will be answered with a pre-determined message. Several auto responder services are available online at no charge, so it’s worth a shot.

List Server
This wonderful technology lets you send emails to entire lists of email addresses’all at the same time. It’s a great way to send your latest announcements and special promotions to drum up some interest and maintain contact with all of your customers.

PDF Compiler
If you need to distribute booklets, books or reports electronically, a PDF compiler will make the process much more efficient. Putting all of your documents in a PDF format means other people can’t edit them, which makes them safe from copying. PDF compiler software is available through the Internet at no charge.

Website
If you want to market your business on the Internet, you need an online home base. Websites don’t cost a lot of money, but it can help your business seem more legitimate if you have a nice web page for customers to visit.

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7 Must Haves in Your Email Signature

October 3, 2010 by Leave a Comment

An email signature is a file automatically placed at the bottom of your email. It’s a great, no-hassle way to spread the word about your business to anyone who reads your emails. If you want your own email signature, there are 7 items you should include.

List your name, your title and the name of your business prominently in your email signature.

Include your email address. Even though you’re sending an email, it looks nice to have your email address in the signature. This is also beneficial if the client prints out your email, and then needs to contact you later from a different computer.

Add your website in your email signature. If your web address is listed in the signature, and it’s clickable, people will likely click on it. After all, when you’re marketing yourself and your business over the Internet, that’s the ultimate goal.

Don’t forget your phone number and your fax number, if applicable. Include your office phone number, cell phone number and a toll free number in your signature so customers have numerous options for contacting you.

Add your mission statement of purpose, especially if your business has a Unique Selling Proposition (USP). This short sentence, which is a catchy but descriptive tagline for your business, can quickly separate you from your competition.

Tell customers why they should go ahead and contact you now. If there’s a link they can click for additional information, or more information available at a certain website, include that information in your email signature.

Create links to your portfolio. If you have awards, accolades or feature articles on the Internet, include them in your signature for a boost to your reputation.

Another tip’¦ you may have different email signatures for different clients. For example, if you work in an office during the day but run an evening side business, those two may require different email signatures.

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