HID Global, a worldwide leader in trusted identity solutions, today announced it has acquired the Invengo Textile Services Business of Invengo Information Technology Co., Ltd. The acquisition adds radio frequency identification (RFID) tags, readers and cloud-based inventory management services for linen and laundry management to HID Global’s industry-leading RFID portfolio.

According to MarketsandMarkets, the global market for commercial laundry offerings, including tags, readers, software and system integrator services, is expected to grow at a compounded annual rate of 12.9 percent from 2020-2025.[1] This growth is driven by the expanding hospitality market and health care facilities requiring management of everything from bedsheets to medical staff uniforms. COVID-19 has also led to a steep rise in the demand for clean and sanitized textiles, driving significant growth in the commercial laundry business worldwide.

Beyond healthcare and hospitality sectors, streamlined linen and laundry management is also necessary for staff uniform laundry in industrial settings, such as power and oil plants, transport facilities, and mining, engineering, chemical, construction and utility companies.

The Invengo Textile Services line extends HID’s RFID and IoT enablement solutions portfolio to address today’s dynamic market requirements. Invengo Textile Services include:

– Durable LinTRAK RAIN RFID ultra-high-frequency (UHF) tags that are OEKO-TEX certified and optimized for integration into linens and other laundered textile products.
– Tiny and robust BluTAG high-frequency (HF) tags designed for industrial textile products.
– Industrial-grade HF and UHF readers, antennas, tabletop stations, gates, cabins and other hardware optimized for laundry use cases.
– The highly scalable ACUITY software platform that enables real-time inventory availability and visibility of textile assets.

The year 2020 will be forever remembered for the Covid-19 pandemic, which swiftly overtook the world and altered our lives forever. The pandemic has also affected the cyber security landscape — a new wave of cyber threats emerged where criminals leveraged Covid-19 to launch attacks.

According to the data analysed by the Atlas VPN team, 16.4 million Covid-19 related cyber threats were detected online in 2020.

Rachel Welch, COO of Atlas VPN, explains her thoughts on the situation: “The pandemic has created the perfect storm for cyber criminals. First of all, many companies were forced to shift to remote work, and less prepared ones became a quick gain for online attackers. Secondly, the general panic and fear of the pandemic made people more susceptible to such threats.”

The company suggests that out of all the Covid-19 related cyber threats found last year, nearly 89% or around 14.5 million attacks were malicious spam. Next up are harmful URLs — they made up a little over 11%, or 1.85 million of all Covid-19 themed cyber threats in 2020.

Finally, less than 1% or close to 33 thousand of last year’s online threats that leveraged the pandemic were malware. While effective, this cyber attack method requires more advanced technical know-how, which could have been the reason why it was the least employed among the three.

US actors behind more than a third of Covid-19 related cyber threats

The Covid-19 pandemic affected the whole world leaving no stone unturned, however, some countries suffered more than others. Generally, highly affected countries were also the ones behind most of the Covid-themed online threats.

The majority of such threats originated in the United States — so far the country most affected by the pandemic. Atlas VPN figures show it was behind 38% or 6.3 million of Covid-related cyber attacks.

In total, 28% or 4.6 million of Covid-19 online threats came from the three biggest European countries in terms of their population: Germany, France, and the United Kingdom. They also belong to the top ten countries with the most Covid-19 cases.

Cyber criminals in Australia were also active last year and commenced over 770 thousand Covid-19 themed attacks, which account for 5% of all pandemic-related cyber threats of 2020. The origin of the remaining 29% of pandemic-related cyber attacks is unknown.

A Wisenet video surveillance camera, which might normally be expected to be seen installed at airports, car parks, stadia, industrial estates or within city centres, has been deployed to monitor activity at a volcano erupting near Reykjavik, Iceland.

The Wisenet XNP-6040H PTZ camera, manufactured by Hanwha Techwin, is being used by media company MBL, to stream live video to the world of the eruption and despite the exposed conditions, it is proving to be more than up to the job by continuously capturing 2-megapxiel colour images of the volcanic activity.

The camera was installed in February 2021 following on from the start of strong seismic activity within the Reykjanes Peninsula. This included several 5+ magnitude earthquakes and thousands of smaller ones, with an eruption occurring on 19 March 2021. The last eruption was approximately 800 years ago.

The XNP-6040H, which was supplied to MBL by Hafnes ehf, Hanwha Techwin Europe’s authorised distributor in Iceland, was installed within a weather-proof housing and is powered by solar panels.

“We are delighted to have had the opportunity to provide MBL with a robust and reliable camera to help them share images of this dramatic event which has attracted viewers from around the world”, said Hafnes ehf’s manager, Hafliði Jónsson. “The intention is for the camera to remain in place long term so that in addition to entertaining the general public, it can also be a valuable resource for geology students and volcanologists”.

A new report on the Smart Card market including Covid-19 impacts by Marketsandmarkets, markets estimates that this sector is projected to reach USD 16.9 billion by 2026 from USD 13.9 billion in 2021, with a CAGR growth of 4.0% from 2021 to 2026.

Major drivers for the growth of the market are surged demand for contactless card (tap-and-pay) payments amid Covid-19, proliferation of smart cards in healthcare, transportation, and BFSI verticals; increased penetration of smart cards in access control and personal identification applications; and easy access to e-government services and risen demand for online shopping and banking. Moreover, new modes of user information security enabled by blockchain and adoption of smart cards in populated countries of APAC act as growth opportunities for developers of smart cards.

Contactless projected for largest market share
A contactless smart card includes an embedded smart card secure microcontroller or equivalent intelligence, internal memory, and a small antenna; it communicates with readers through a contactless radio frequency (RF) interface. Radio-frequency identification (RFID) or near-field communication (NFC) communication technologies are primarily used for contactless smart card applications. Covid-19 is positively impacting the contactless smart card market as the World Health Organization (WHO) and governments across the world are advocating the use of contactless smart cards for various purposes to ensure social distancing to contain the spread of the virus. Contactless smart cards provide ease, speed, and convenience to users. The contactless interface has become highly relevant in the current Covid-19 situation, especially for payment applications, as it facilitates safe and secure transactions without physical contact.

Telecommunications strongest vertical
A subscriber identity module (SIM) card is a type of microcontroller-based smart card used in mobile phones and other devices. A SIM identifies and authenticates a subscriber to a wireless cell phone network. The telecommunications segment accounted for the maximum share with 42% of the smart card market in 2020. Expanding global mobile network and improvements in its infrastructure are boosting the growth of the market. In addition, Covid-19 led to an increased demand for connectivity, and the researchers found that the current crisis provided a push to the trend of digitalisation of business and private communication with cellular technology, along with the generalisation of digital conferences. Moreover, the penetration of high-end SIM card technologies, such as LTE, 5G, M2M, eSIM, and SWP, is expected to augment the market growth in the coming years.

Geographical stronghold
The analysts suggest that the APAC region is the largest market for smart cards and is expected to lead the way for a few years. The robust financial system that is being increasingly digitised and government agencies incorporating smart chip-based systems for better monitoring of processes are propelling several APAC countries to adopt smart card solutions owing to increasing demand, specifically in the transportation, BFSI, retail, government, and healthcare sectors. Smart cards are used to purchase tickets in metros, buses, and ferries, amongst others, in several countries in APAC countries. China is projected to witness the highest demand for smart cards in the region with its large consumer base and the presence of a number of smart card manufacturers.

Some of the major companies playing a prominent role in this market and named by the researchers in the report include, Thales, Idemia, Giesecke + Devrient, CPI Card, HID Global, Watchdata, Eastcompeace, Inteligensa, AB Corp, and Cardlogix.

At the end of March, Dahua Technology released its 2020 annual report, showing the company’s steady growth in the past year, as well as a sustainable development committed to development and innovation.

During 2020, Dahua Technology achieved operating revenue of RMB 26.466 billion (USD 4.06 billion), representing a year-on-year increase of 1.21%; net profit attributable to shareholders of the listed company amounted to RMB 3.903 billion (USD 599 million), growing 22.42% year on year.

The Covid-19 pandemic has had a wide-ranging and profound impact on the development of the international community, the global economy (be it agricultural, industrial or digital) and the smart IoT industry. Dahua Technology, by expanding the in-depth application of the IoT technology in the city-level and enterprise-level markets, is enabling the digital transformation of cities, enterprises and homes with one-stop smart IoT services and solutions.

Focused on AI, cloud storage, big data platform and IoT technology, Dahua Technology’s R & D investment in 2020 reached USD 460 million with year-on-year increase of 7.28%, accounting for 11.33% of operating revenue.

Dahua Technology operates a global marketing and service network through 180 countries to provide customers with efficient and end-to-end services. The company has established 58 subsidiaries and representative offices and more than 100 after-sales service stations in the world, while nearly 100 image stores and over 3000 element stores have been set up in 2020. In addition, overseas R&D divisions have started operations in both Europe and the Americas for localised development of software platforms, which will significantly improve the customer needs, response and speed.