Skip to main content

Eurosmart warning: 'Don't choose personal password 123456'

Setting the scene for this year’s World Card Summit, CARTES Network Exhibition Director Isabelle Alfano stated that the changes brought about by smart cards “could be more significant than those brought about by the Internet revolution”.
November 20, 2013 Read time: 1 min
‘Significant change’: Isabelle Alfano. Right: Oyvind Rastad: ‘replace passwords’
Setting the scene for this year’s World Card Summit, CARTES Network Exhibition Director Isabelle Alfano stated that the changes brought about by smart cards “could be more significant than those brought about by the Internet revolution”.

However, the challenges faced in bringing security to a very fast-growing sector were highlighted by Eurosmart’s Chairman Oyvind Rastad: the most commonly used personal password in the world is 123456, he said, with “more security-conscious individuals” opting for 12345678.

The solution, Rastad continued, is to replace passwords with fully end-to-end security solutions. The magnitude of the need is underscored by the fact that 7.7 billion smart secure shipments are expected in 2014. Rastad’s comments set the scene for an enlivened debate over Opportunities and Threats for the Secure Digital Industry.

Alex Green, Senior Research Director at IHS, led a panel including Morpho’s Phillipe d’Andrea, Giesecke & Devrient’s Axel Deininger, Infineon Technologies’  Stephan Hofschen, Oberthur Technologies’ Didier Lamouche, NXP Semiconductors’ Steve Owen and Gemalto’s Olivier Piou.

Related Content

  • Lowering the barriers to combined control rooms
    March 29, 2017
    Integrating control rooms can improve traffic management, security and emergency response without excessive cost or compromising privacy. In the wake of the recent terrorist events in France and Germany where the transport system was exploited with deadly consequences, many governments and agencies are reviewing the security arrangements – particularly around popular and high profile events. Increasing security in transport systems that must remain accessible to the general public will not be easy but in ma
  • Gemalto and Keolis contactless ticketing
    September 16, 2016
    Dutch digital security company Gemalto, in cooperation with French public transit Keolis Lille, has rolled out what it claims is the world’s first contactless transport ticket wristband named Celego.
  • ITS Australia Global Summit 2023: super-sized
    December 2, 2022
    Four-day Global Summit will be held on 28-31 August, 2023 in Melbourne: accelerating smarter, safer, sustainable transport is focus of next year's expanded event for whole ITS community
  • Strike action prompts commuters to try something different
    June 2, 2014
    David Crawford highlights responses to transit disruption on both sides of the Atlantic. Shortly before workers at San Francisco Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) began a lengthy round of pay and conditions-related strikes in summer 2013, impacting on the daily lives of 400,000 communities, online ridesharing group Avego publicised a new web address: bartstrike.com. By the start of the following week, Avego was encouraging stranded commuters to download its smartphone app by offering them the chance in a raffle