Collis has developed an NFC two-factor Asymmetrical Chip Authentication (ACA), which is an enhancement of its 2ACA application.

The original 2ACA application enables third party authentication based on standard EMV implementations. Collis says it has enhanced this contact chip-based 2ACA authentication scheme by integrating 2ACA into the contactless payment card protocols and NFC protocol to create the scheme known as NFC-2ACA.

According to Collis: “NFC-2ACA is an authentication method based on EMV that uses the NFC technology. Previous authentication methods that are based on EMV, had the weakness of using symmetrical cryptography. By using asymmetrical cryptography more possibilities are realised because authentication methods with cards that are issued by a bank use the secret symmetrical keys that are also used for payment. Banks, for security reasons, do not share these secret keys and therefore it is only possible to authenticate towards the bank. By bypassing the use of these secret symmetrical keys and using asymmetrical keys instead, authentication to a third party becomes possible.”

Collis claims this latest authentication scheme will enable banks and mobile network operators to increase the customer value of their standard contactless products such as EMV cards, NFC-capable mobile phones and SIM cards.

Functionality is offered by single sign-on for corporate networks, secure building access, strong authentication, email signing and remote network access using the benefits of EMV such as asymmetrical cryptography.

“With the 2ACA solution that we developed last year, we opened up the possibility of using standard bank cards in 3rd party authentication schemes. The mobile and financial industries are working hard to converge their respective applications into one single NFC-enabled handset,” says Maarten Bron, vice president and manager, Payment Competence Centre, Collis. “Now that we have implemented 2ACA to work with contactless or NFC-based EMV implementations, we hope to contribute to this convergence.”