NXP Expands Its MIFARE DESFire Product Portfolio

Jun 16, 2020NXP Semiconductors has announced its new MIFARE DESFire EV3 IC, which is designed to provide improved performance and security, as well as easier integration of mobile services with regard to security and connectivity in smart-city services. The IC is backwards-compatible with previous generations, the company reports, and offers a greater operating distance and improved transaction speed. In combination with its security features, NXP indicates, the new IC allows for faster, secure and contactless transactions, such as paying for parking, accessing offices or campuses, and using other essential city services.

The MIFARE DESFire portfolio was created for mass transit ticketing applications, the company reports, and the EV3 IC is designed to offer convenience for end users and reliability for service providers. The IC provides multi-application support and an array of features that allow transit agencies, access-control solution providers and systems integrators to collaborate on new business models and scale their services.

"We are committed to [providing] our riders with secure, reliable and flexible transport ticketing solutions," said Barry Dorgan, the head of ticketing systems at the Irish National Transport Authority, in a prepared statement. "By using NXP's proven MIFARE DESFire products, we can continue to support our riders with a seamless transport experience that is both safe and convenient."

Security features in the EV3 IC enable users to protect data and ensure privacy, according to the company. The hardware and software are certified to Common Criteria EAL 5+, and the IC supports a choice of open crypto algorithms. A card-generated MAC helps to securely authenticate transactions, the company explains, while a Transaction Timer feature helps mitigate man-in-the-middle attacks, making it difficult for an attacker to interfere with the transaction.

Additionally, a Secure Unique NFC (SUN) messaging feature offers a secure method for maintaining data confidentiality and integrity. Each time a card, phone or ticket is tapped with the SUN featured enabled, NXP reports, a tap-unique authentication message and crypto-secure URL are generated that can be sent to a server for verification—which, the company says, makes the taps unclonable.

Support for MIFARE DESFire EV3 will be integrated into NXP's MIFARE 2GO cloud service, which manages digitized MIFARE product-based credentials and helps streamline mobile integration via NXP's ecosystem. With this functionality, smart-city services can be deployed to NFC-enabled smartphones, wearables and other mobile devices.

"With the launch of MIFARE DESFire EV3, NXP is laying the foundation for a new level of connected smart-city services that are form-factor-independent and can be available on a traditional smart card or mobile device," said Philippe Dubois, NXP's VP and general manager of IoT security and secure mobility and retail, in the prepared statement. "The security features of the IC help prevent fraud and theft and, combined with its ability to support a broad range of applications, the IC paves the way for managing many other smart-city services beyond transit and access control. NXP is proud to empower society with our contactless solutions for broad scale use, as the worldwide impact of COVID-19 makes contact-free transactions a necessity."

"As a leading manufacturer of RFID-based inlays and antennas and long-term partner of NXP, we are excited about the enhanced feature set and scalability of the new product," said Benoit Ravier, Linxens' senior VP of global sales, in the prepared statement. "Together with NXP, we support smart-city installations by making them more secure and convenient."

For simplified deployment, each EV3 IC is preconfigured with keys to enable delegated application management, which supports seamless, over-the-air updates to deployed smart cards using NFC-enabled smartphones. In addition, NXP's upcoming MIFARE Plus EV2 IC will provide a drop-in replacement for upgrading existing MIFARE Plus and MIFARE Classic product-based installations to higher security.