Didier Lamouche, president and CEO of Oberthur Technologies (OT), explains what ‘users on the move’ means to his company and what can be done about hackers
Q Users on the move is the theme of CARTES this year - how does this relate to your company?
A Users on the move is fully in line with OT’s tagline: OT the M Company – where M stands for mobility. OT’s mission is to provide the mobile world with embedded security software products and end-to-end management solutions aimed at protecting the critical assets of our customers and enhancing their end users’ mobility experience.
Q Are there any business areas that you are not in but where you would like to have a presence?
A OT addresses three major segments: transaction processing for payment/banking, transport & retail, telecom and mobile communications for telecom operators plus mobile devices for OEMs for their smartphone offerings (over 400 telecom customers including eight of the top 10 mobile operators and the leading OEMs) and identity. In most of the above segments, we are either number one or number two in the world. With an increasing number of mobile devices sold each year, the industry as a whole is changing at an astonishing pace with everyone trying to ‘out innovate’ each other. I believe OT is very well positioned as we are able to provide world-class digital security technology embedded in any support – paper, plastic, mobile devices, wearables, Cloud – to secure life in a world of mobility. This is the role OT intends to play, facilitating and securing mobility to ensure we can all benefit from the present and future possibilities opened up by new technologies: a faster, more fluid, more connected mobile life with maximum protection of our digital assets.
Q Can you give us a few thoughts about the importance of security, one of the key issues in our industry?
A Security is of course a concern that drives all OT’s innovations. Recently, for example, the payment ecosystem has faced important fraud issues in the US where the bank details of millions of retail customers have been hacked at a number of well-known brands. OT’s EMV solution is allowing financial institutions and retailers to secure transactions by migrating from unsecure magstripe cards to secure smart cards. In our industry, security is key and at OT we are at the forefront of technology to address it.
Q Things are changing fast - what is the next big trend do you think?
AThe payment industry as a whole has to increase the rate and pace of innovation to cope with the rapidly evolving ingenuity of hackers. OT can bring a unique contribution with the world-first payment card integrating dynamic security codes, the 3 or 4-digit security code printed on payment cards. We believe this is a real game-changer in the payment market that will revolutionise the industry.
Q Are you revealing any new products or services at CARTES?
A This year at CARTES, we invite all our customers and visitors to live ‘a day in your life with OT’. In the Mobile Financial Services area for example, we are presenting our full range of Cloud-based, eSE-based and SIM-based solutions, as OT is the only company mastering all NFC-based technologies with proven references around the globe. On top of the world-first payment cards with dynamic security codes, we also have a stand dedicated to the SESAMES Award-winning Lasink, another world-first solution – this time in the identity market – that provides the best solution to reproduce your personal photo on polycarbonate cards and passports making them resilient to fraudulent attacks.
Q If you have time, what would you like to see at CARTES?
A I will visit the UAE country of honour stand. The UAE is at the forefront of connectivity and OT is a leading actor in the market as a preferred partner of more than 100 customers across the telecom and banking sectors with a strong culture of innovation.
Stand: 4E 001
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