NFC/EMV/MIFARE PLATFORMS & ECOSYSTEMS

NFC IS AN ENABLING TECHNOLOGY AND IS EMBEDDED EVERYWHERE

NFC technology connects worldwide hundreds of millions of smartphones, tablets, PC's, POS terminals! Ecosystems and Platforms such as EMV, MIFARE (but also Felica and Cipurse) work successfully with NFC standard/protocol and are taking shape around the world in a collaborative and evolutive manner. Newcomers such as Google or Microsoft are entering the game right now. Apple and its closed system certainly will follow soon. These platforms serve as secure all-in-one ecosystems offering endless services, functions and applications, including contactless payment, physical access, digital identication to replace passwords, ticketing & transports, membership and loyalty programs, product authentication and many others apps and services to serve customers all over the world.

What is NFC ?

learn more : http://nfc-forum.org/

EMV (Europay, MasterCard and Visa)

EMV is the worldwide standard for payment cards and for payment POS terminals. EMV smart cards can be contact cards that must be physically inserted (or "dipped") into a reader, or contactless cards that can be read over a short distance using radio-frequency identification (RFID) technology.

EMV stands for Europay, MasterCard, and Visa, the three companies that originally created the standard. The standard is now managed by EMVCo, a consortium with control split equally among Visa, Mastercard, JCB, American Express, China UnionPay, and Discover.
There are standards based on ISO/IEC 7816 for contact cards, and standards based on ISO/IEC 14443 for contactless cards (PayPass, PayWave, ExpressPay).

What is EMV ?

learn more:  https://www.emvco.com/

MIFARE (NXP)

Since 1994, MIFARE has redefined the face of public transport, ticketing, banking, access management and more. Nearly 20 years later, NXP continues to bring contactless smartcard technology into new applications that are shaping our future. 

What is MIFARE?

learn more:  https://www.mifare.net/en/

,WINDOWS UNLOCK' (MICROSOFT - WINDOWS 10)

Microsoft announces useful features for its upcoming updates. So there is ,Windows Unlock' that allows you to unlock your PC with a companion device. 

A companion device can be your smartphone or simply your wristwatch. The main purpose of a companion device is to add a second level of authentication (2FA / Two-Factor Authentication). There are different possible ways to connect the companion device to your desktop, and one is with your NFC equipped wristwatch.

And here is how to start the authentication process:

1. Open up the lid on laptop, or hit the space or swipe up on PC.
2. Tap your NFC watch to the NFC reader to quickly unlock your PC.

Windows Unlock is more secure than a PIN code or any other authentication means.

If you want to learn more about ,Windows Unlock' go to Microsoft’s Windows Dev Center

Companion device framework

To be released in Windows 10 this summer is Companion Device Framework. It complements login scenarios to provide two-factor authentication. It will be possible to login with wearables and NFC cards, so called companion devices.

A companion device (e.g. your NFC watch), is a device that can act in conjunction with your Windows 10 desktop to enhance the user authentication process and speed. 

• Tap NFC watch as companion device to NFC reader to simply unlock your PC.

The Companion Device Framework is implemented as a service running on Windows 10. This service is responsible for generating an unlock token which needs to be protected by an HMAC key stored on companion device. This guarantees that access to the unlock token requires companion device presence. 

learn more: https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/uwp/secu...