NXP introduces the MIFARE DESFire EV3 IC, ushering in a new era of security and connectivity for contactless smart city services

NXP Semiconductors introduces the MIFARE DESFire EV3 IC, offering a new generation of high-performance, advanced security features and seamlessly integrated mobile services to usher in a new era of security and connectivity for smart city services. NXP's established contactless MIFARE DESFire portfolio is undergoing a third evolution with the latest ics that are backward compatible, providing enhanced performance, longer working distances and faster transfer speeds. The new IC combines outstanding security features to transfer data faster and more securely, enabling truly contactless operations such as parking payments, office or campus access, and other basic city services that do not require contact.

● Service providers and end users benefit from convenient and reliable contactless access control and payment solutions

● Enhanced feature set enhances the security of smart city facilities

● Support for mobile devices and multiple applications, allowing service providers to collaborate and extend services in new ways

● NXP enables the fast, reliable and secure contactless transactions necessary in today's social distancing environment

Proven over the past 25 years, NXP's MIFARE portfolio is at the heart of smart city facilities around the world. The MIFARE DESFire EV3 IC is built on a legacy portfolio that supports mass transit tickets, while providing more convenience for end users and reliability for service providers. NXP's ics support multiple applications and provide enhancements that enable public transit agencies, access control solution providers and system integrators to collaborate on new business models and expand their services.

Barry Dorgan, Director of Ticketing systems at the National Transport Authority of Ireland, said: "We are committed to providing passengers with safe, reliable and flexible transport ticketing solutions. Using NXP's proven MIFARE DESFire product, we can continue to provide passengers with a seamless transportation experience that is safe and convenient."

Advanced security features raise the bar

The versatility of the MIFARE DESFire EV3 IC provides a variety of ways to protect data and privacy. The IC hardware and software are certified to the common EAL 5+ standard, and the IC supports a variety of open encryption algorithms. Card-based Macs help securely authenticate transactions, and the new transaction timer feature can help defend against "man-in-the-middle" attacks, so it's harder for attackers to disrupt transactions. In addition, the new "Secure and Unique NFC" (SUN) messaging feature more securely protects data confidentiality and integrity. Each time, the SUN function is enabled to click on a card, phone or ticket, generating a click-specific authentication message and a secure encrypted URL, which is sent to the server for authentication to prevent the click from being cloned.

Support for mobile device applications

Support for MIFARE DESFire EV3 will be integrated into NXP's MIFARE 2GO cloud service to manage digital credentials for MIFARE products and simplify mobile integration through the NXP ecosystem. With this, smart cities can seamlessly deploy NFC phones, wearables, and other mobile devices.

Philippe Dubois, vice president and General manager, Mobile and Retail, NXP iot Security and Security, said: "The introduction of the MIFARE DESFire EV3 by NXP takes the foundation of smart city services to a new level with no limitations on form factor and can be used in traditional smart cards or mobile devices. The IC's security features help to prevent fraud and theft, and can support a variety of applications, paving the way for managing many other smart city services in addition to traffic and access control. NXP is proud to contribute its widely used contactless solutions to society, especially in the current global coronavirus situation where contactless transactions have become indispensable."

Benoit Ravier, Senior Vice President of Global Sales at Linxens, said: "As a leading manufacturer of RFID insets and antennas and a long-time partner of NXP, we are very pleased with the enhanced feature set and scalability in the new product. Working with NXP, we are providing support to make smart city facilities safer and more accessible."

To simplify deployment, each MIFARE DESFire EV3 IC is pre-configured with a key for easy managed application management, and deployed smart cards can be seamlessly and wirelessly updated using NFC-enabled smartphones.

In addition, NXP's upcoming MIFARE Plus EV2 IC can be upgraded to improve safety by simply replacing existing facilities based on MIFARE Plus and MIFARE Classic products.