Trusted identities, payments and data protection provider, Entrust, has announced its new cloud-based, direct-to-card solution for physical and remote ID card issuance. The next generation Entrust Sigma series card printer has been built with today’s cloud environments in mind, leveraging encryption, trusted HSM technology and secure boot to issue highly secure credentials.

The new Sigma series card printer looks to deliver a seamless user experience across the issuance process for both desktop and remote printing. It eliminates frustrations associated with printer set-up by employing a modular design and an out-of-the-box implementation that takes less than 30 minutes for users to begin issuing credentials.

Equipped with cloud-based APIs, Sigma series card printers bring issuance to the cloud without additional hardware, enabling instant printing for physical IDs, badges and payment cards. Sigma series printers are also trusted Internet-of-Things (IoT) devices that can help ensure organizations and data are safe behind an intelligent network and enterprise-level protection.

On the printing side, the Sigma series offers capabilities like tactile impressions, as well as holographic and luster panel printing, that make it highly difficult for counterfeiters to alter or recreate cards. Additionally, features like an inline magnetic stripe and smart card encoding secure your cards during the printing process.

“Entrust has been a pioneer in direct to card identity issuance technology for decades, and our Sigma system takes it to a whole new level," says Tony Ball, Senior Vice President and General Manager of Instant Issuance at Entrust. "With our Sigma platform, we’re proud to deliver a best-in-class desktop credential issuance solution that’s designed to work completely and securely within a cloud environment, allowing higher education institutions to meet high-volume issuance demands without sacrificing security or ease of use."

Sigma systems offer the most advanced security architecture that keeps data protected at each step of the issuance process:

• Encrypted connections. The connection and data sent between software and the printer are secure and encrypted. Sigma printers don't store customer data after successful printing is complete.
• Secure boot. Prevents Sigma systems from booting up malware or other compromises are detected.
• Trusted platform module (TPM). Organizations can store and manage user certificates and keys in the printer, allowing the printer to become a trusted internet of things (IoT) endpoint.

With an increasing number of employees working remotely, Sigma systems has also been built as both a physical and digital issuance platform. The Sigma system’s “Printer Dashboard” is available on mobile devices, allowing organizations to manage the card printer from anywhere, without being tied to a desktop.

“Whether your requirements demand an integrated, secure on-premises solution or a system that can grow with a distributed workforce via a secure cloud-hosted Identity Management offering, the Entrust Sigma solutions can meet your needs,” says Joe Franco, Director of Sales at Capture Technologies, an Entrust channel partner.

“Sigma is browser based and mobile ready and able to be deployed without the need for a heavy client to be installed," adds Franco. "The certificate based integrated security features should put to rest any concerns about using the cloud for identity issuance, or your printing solution being vulnerable to network attack.”

Sigma systems enable card issuers to pivot to a contactless ID issuance experience by supporting online photo submission and photo validation, card production, and card delivery to the user. Furthermore, the on-premise instant ID solution features a mobile enrollment functionality for added flexibility to issue IDs at various locations across a campus.