A new smart card based fare system is in the works for the Saten Island Railway (SIR), according to silive.com.

The MTA has already installed new turnstiles at the Tompkinsville and Grasmere stations, and plans to finish the transition to contactless payment within the next few years. ▸

South Africa is putting on hold indefinitely its smart card ID project, according to itweb.co.za.

Home Affairs minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma stated that her department has run out of money after reallocating R114 million meant for the project to “other things,” ITWeb reports. ▸

A new building at Ireland’s Cork Institute of Technology has been equipped with a wireless XS4 access control system by Salto, according to info4security.com.

As part of the system, Mifare contactless smart cards, which also double up as a photo ID, were issued. The smart ID cards build up on-card audit trails through normal use giving Cork Institute of Technology complete control over access. ▸

After first promising its citizens biometric passports in 2008, the Canadian government has promised to move the program back into items they intend to deliver to its citizens. The announcement came during a throne speech on March 3 that discussed multiple items that had been promised to be included in the federal 2008 budget, but were cut for various reasons.

Originally, the biometric passport was tabled due to worries over implementation costs and logistics as well as questions surrounding its proposed ten year validation span. While those behind the push for bringing the project back are interested in what the technology can do to improve national security, some politicians are still questioning if biometrics are accurate enough and if privacy concerns are being considered enough in the implementation of the project.

Read the full story here.  

UK’s Barclaycard is now allowing customers to pay for greater value items with their contactless credit and debit cards, bumping the limit up from £10 to £15 per purchase, according to which4u.co.uk.

Barclaycard hopes that the increased spending range will encourage more retailers to implement the technology. ▸

The Theatre Royal Stratford East has awarded SALTO Systems a contract to provide a fully integrated XS4 solution which includes access control and stand alone locks using cotactless Mifare cards.

The installation will be carried out by Delta Security, a local business partner of SALTO Systems. The XS4 system’s off-line doors will be validated by regular use of the hot-spot, on-line access control readers. ▸

Gemalto has announced that its Protiva Strong Authentication Server is now fully integrated with Microsoft Forefront Identity Manager 2010, allowing organizations to provision, deploy and manage smart card-based one-time password (OTP) devices linked to Gemalto’s server on the familiar Microsoft interface.

Gemalto will be demonstrating the combined solution at the RSA Conference 2010 in the Microsoft Partner Pavilion, booth #1527, and at Gemalto booth #1923. ▸