Case study: Transport Scotland (v4 ISAMs)

All ITSO-compliant ticketing devices must have a component called an ITSO Secure Application Module (ISAM), which protects tickets and transactions. The ITSO Security Management Service (ISMS) manages the cryptographic keys for all ISAMs across the UK to ensure that approved devices can trust each other – creating a secure and interoperable foundation for smart ticketing.

Every ISAM is unique, and Unicard (in conjunction with ITSO and the ISMS) manage the ordering, commissioning, renewal and withdrawal of every ISAM in service in our customers’ POSTs and HOPS.

Transport Scotland, the national transport agency for Scotland, asked Unicard to help them update their entire estate of ISAMs. The thousands of ISAMs in their ticketing devices were all older v2 ISAMs, last manufactured in 2011, which presented two pressing issues:

• Date Time Stamp (DTS) elements used in the ITSO environment are approaching a cutoff date of 24/11/2028, after which time v2 ISAMs will cease operating correctly (in fact, ITSO have announced this as the retirement date for v2 ISAMs and the “End of Support”).
• v2 ISAMs also do not support CMD12, a new ITSO media definition which includes support for the latest generation of MIFARE DESFire smartcards, and allows the use of Apple iPhones as customer media in place of a smartcard.

Unicard, who are a member of ITSO, are working with Transport Scotland to provide them with replacement v4 ISAMs – the latest version of the ISAM – which solve both these problems and are also compliant with the latest version 2.1.5 of the ITSO Specification.

This is an ongoing process in which Unicard obtain blank ISAMs from ITSO, then commission and profile them individually to configure and customise them for Transport Scotland’s chosen products and customer media.

The arrival of the v4 ISAM also marks the move from a dual-chip to a single-chip secure module, which brings lower costs and increased reliability.

Unicard ITSO SME Michael Cuthbertson said: “Transport Scotland have a thorough testing regime before adding new equipment to their network, which extends to the ISAM. We’ve worked closely with both Transport Scotland and ITSO to understand supply chain availability and to iron out issues found during testing.

“It’s a big project for Transport Scotland to replace their entire ISAM estate, and we will continue to support our customer through their rollout of the new ISAMs.”

Customer background

Transport Scotland is the national transport agency for Scotland. They seek to deliver a safe, efficient, cost-effective and sustainable transport system for the benefit of the people of Scotland, playing a key role in helping to achieve the Scottish Government’s purpose of increasing sustainable economic growth with opportunities for all of Scotland to flourish.