Malta-based Aloaha Ltd recently participated at the Ominicard trade fair in Berlin to present its smart card/e-ID middleware technology.

Omnicard is a major international conference for the smart card community. Its Europe-wide high reputation is grounded on the fact that the trade show is the meeting place for highly qualified international speakers and e-security application specialists including smart card and software producers.

It was the place for around-the-clock networking between public authorities, researchers, management representatives, smart card and software producers. The forums focused on e-ID, e-health, e-passports and e-payment.

Thanks to the continuous assistance of Malta Enterprise and the ERDF (European Regional Development Fund), International Competitiveness Grant Scheme, Aloaha has embarked in a market penetration strategy to further internationalise its security products. Stefan Engelbert, the company's managing director, explained how Aloaha has become one of the leading software producers offering other countries cryptographic solutions compatible to the latest algorithms and security cards. Mr Engelbert pointed out that the chip of a smart card is just one of the security functions of an e-ID or e-health system.

For a full operational e-ID or e-health project the data on the chip has to be integrated transparently into the application infrastructure. Aloaha's middleware is needed to provide legacy applications an interface to the smart card itself. Without such a software interface the e-ID/e-health system is not interoperable and thereby limiting the whole system.

Additional to its middleware software, Aloaha presented its own Smartcard and Windows 7 Credential Provider. The crypto card developed by Aloaha is a secure container for e-ID certificates.

The company also launched AloahaCrypt, a freeware Add-on to the Aloaha Smartcard Connector or the Smartcard based Aloaha Credential Provider. It is used to encrypt hard drives and memory sticks.

www.aloaha.com