Schlumberger Ltd, the French engineering company specializing in smart cards and terminals, announced that its Cryptoflex smart card is interoperable with Microsoft Corp’s Windows 2000 operating system. The company also started shipping its new Java-based smart card, Cyberflex Access. Cryptoflex, which was launched in October 1996, already runs on other systems including Aliroo and Activcard technology. It gives security options, including external and internal authentication using a range of algorithm types, to users of Windows applications. Schlumberger recently won a contract with Italian banking firm Societa per I Servizi Bancari to provide Cryptoflex as a security check for its email traffic. Cyberflex, is a much newer offering, dating only from December 1998. It is a more expensive, higher security offering containing embedded cryptographic functions.
