The baiMobile™ 3000MP Bluetooth Smart Card reader is designed to support most mobile platforms. Supported platforms include Apple iOS 4.x (iPhone and iPad) and Android OS 2.2 and higher (Dell Streak). Future support is planned for other operating systems such as Windows 7 desktops and tablets. The reader supports standard ISO 7816 smart cards such as the Common Access Card (CAC) issued by the US Department of Defense and the Personal Identity Verification (PIV) issued by other agencies of the US Government. This wireless solution permits network or client applications residing on mobile devices to access the credentials stored on the smart card to perform functions such as digitally signing and decrypting emails, and authenticating to secure web sites and network servers. The reader also functions as a wearable badge holder with the printed identification features of the card exposed for visual inspection as seen below.
baiMobile®™ Bluetooth Adapter
NSA and DISA require that all extraneous Bluetooth profiles be disabled as a security precaution. Since this level of granularity is not available in iOS for the iPhone's native Bluetooth radio, an external Bluetooth adapter is required for communications with the smart card reader. The baiMobile™ Bluetooth Adapter, attached to the 30-pin connector of the iPhone or iPad, establishes a secure communications link with the reader. The Bluetooth adapter is not required for Android devices.
baiMobile®™ Smart Card Middleware
The baiMobile™ Smart Card Middleware enables client and network applications to retrieve public certificates and perform PKI private key cryptographic operations on the smart card. The middleware supports PKCS#11 API and PC/SC APIs and includes other higher level API's such as Java CSP (Android). The baiMobile™ solution includes security and device driver files. The Middleware cannot be installed separately on iOS or Android devices. It must be integrated with applications such as Good Mobile Messaging.
Device Pairing
The baiMobile™ 3000MP reader uses the Secure Simple Pairing's Numerical Comparison Association Model pairing method available in Bluetooth version 2.1 and higher. At each pairing event, a randomly generated six digit passkey is generated and displayed on both the iPhone and the LED panel on the reader. The user must compare both numbers and acknowledge that they are the same. This feature is not available in older versions of Bluetooth (2.0 and lower). As a result, the reader will only operate with devices with Bluetooth version 2.1 and higher.
Security
The baiMobile™ 3000MP reader meets both the NSA and DISA requirements for secure Bluetooth communications. The reader employs the highest security level (Mode 4: service level) available in Bluetooth version 2.1 and higher. All data transferred between the iPhone and the smart card reader is encrypted using a FIPS 140-2 approved crypto module that provides a 256-bit AES encrypted tunnel over standard 128-bit Bluetooth encryption. The Wireless CAC Reader operates in the "non-discoverable" mode at all times (except when pairing) - hidden from other Bluetooth devices and rejecting all other pairing requests.
