November 21, 2008—Hirsch Electronics, a leading supplier of physical access control systems, has signed an exclusive global distribution agreement with SCM Microsystems to provide SCM’s Physical Access Control Terminals (PACT) series physical access readers to the open market. The SCM PACT readers are designed specifically for Department of Defense (DoD) sites.
The DoD has been a leader in deployment of contact smart cards for logical and physical access control and has millions of such cards deployed and in use today. Homeland Security Presidential Directive 12’s (HSPD-12) FIPS 201 standard mandated Personal Identity Verification (PIV) cards that would be interoperable across all agencies, propelling DoD agencies around the world, including the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines, and Coast Guard, to seek a systems solution that would support both the existing deployed Common Access Cards (CAC I) as well as the new contact/contactless CAC II cards.
“SCM Microsystems has provided significant volumes of logical access readers for the DoD, and we developed a series of physical access readers as well, based on our experience with the government market,” commented Manfred Mueller, SCM executive vice president, strategic business development and sales. “To bring the units to market effectively, SCM needed a global distribution partner with a proven track record securing DoD facilities. In Hirsch we found the ideal partner to accomplish this.
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Hirsch offers the SCM PACT series smart card readers for sale to all industry manufacturers and integrators worldwide effective immediately.
For more information, visit the Hirsch Electronics Web site as well as the company’s ad FMLink ad.
