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If you've been browsing our catalogue looking for a new ID card holder, chances are you've encountered the term "CardProtector badge holder" at some point. And unless you're as familiar with ID products as we are, you probably had a very basic (but valid) question: “What is it?”

It sounds like it could be one of several things but it’s certainly not just another name for a non-flexible badge holder. CardProtector badge holders serve as a pretty basic solution to a very modern problem.

What is a CardProtector badge holder?

What does a CardProtector badge holder do?

This kind of holder shields the inserted smart card from being read or scanned by card readers thanks to a specific metal insert.

Fully understanding this requires a bit of background information on how smart cards work.

Normally, a smart card in a radio-frequency identification (RFID) program works by having an internal chip that interacts with a dedicated card reader.

The card reader contains an antenna that scans for RFID chips. When the scanning antenna picks up a chip, it takes the data from that chip and sends it back to a receiver that translates the data for use in payment systems, access control systems and more.

The thin piece of metal material that is the major part of a shielded badge holder helps to interrupt this process. The metal material helps to prevent the smart chip from being picked up by the antenna of a smart card reader.

Essentially, the metal protects the chip from the scanning antenna, sending the waves bouncing back and preventing the transmission of any data.

Why would you want to block an RFID card from being scanned?

It seems kind of counterintuitive, doesn't it? After all, the point of RFID cards is for them to be contactless and convenient, to allow for the quick collection of data or granting of access.

However, many of today's RFID cards can contain sensitive data. For example, an employee ID smart card used at a large corporation may contain information like the cardholder's name, title and security clearance. Even if the face of the card just features a name and a photo, a wealth of data may exist on the chip beneath the surface.

The data exists on the card so the system can use it to verify access, which is a great use of an RFID smart card; however, it isn't data you'd want out there for public consumption.

Contactless payment with credit cards is becoming an increasingly popular method of payment as well. Some of these cards use similar technology to that referenced above, potentially leaving a card vulnerable to unauthorized data access by anyone with a rogue reader.

Are people actually being victimized by this kind of data theft?

The short answer is "yes," but the extent of the damage being done is unclear. Various reports and articles have shown that it is, in fact, possible for a data thief armed with the right card reader to pick up information off of a smart card or chip-containing credit card. This kind of data theft is known as skimming, a type of identity theft mainly focused on acquiring user data.

Many credit card companies have taken steps to make the kind of information that can be gleaned from skimming essentially useless. For example, some cards issue a one-time PIN for each transaction, while others ensure that no card numbers, CVVs or names are transmitted via RFID.

However, corporations, government offices and other organizations using RFID-based smart cards may not have taken the same steps, potentially leaving their user data vulnerable. Such vulnerabilities would be particularly troubling for high-security organizations or government offices dealing in classified data or intelligence.

How can I protect a smart card from data skimming?

The simplest method, as this post has hopefully made clear, is to use a CardProtector badge holder.

As mentioned above, shielded badge holders contain thin layers of metal that prevent the card from being read by a scanning antenna. In the event that a data thief held a reader to your smart card, the shielded badge holder would prevent it from being read.

Shielded badge holders come with the added benefit of looking just like regular badge holders. They're available in several styles, including open-face and multi-card.

When using a CardProtector holder, you can have your card scanned for legitimate purposes by simply removing it from the holder and passing by a reader. This functionality makes shielded badge holders a great way to prevent data theft without rendering your card unusable in the process.

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As venues plan their reopening, capacity management is a key component for compliance and the health, safety, and peace of mind of your guests and staff. Theme parks and venues will need to put strict procedures in place to manage attendance and occupancy levels into and throughout their parks to adhere to capacity guidelines.

Transitioning to a Capacity Managed Attraction

The more confidence you instill in your guests with effective health and safety measures, the more likely you will be to draw visitors and get them to recommend friends and family, and to repeat visits. Now more than ever, it’s essential to use identification solutions and technology to manage guest capacity. A highly valuable and beneficial approach is to adopt the use of wristbands to help you effectively monitor guest and staff capacity and flow throughout your venue. Below we offer 6 tips for tackling capacity management at your attraction.

Attendance Tracking Made Simpler with Coloured Wristbands

Capacity management will be the new normal for quite some time once parks and venues reopen their doors to the public. Controlling and managing guest attendance will no longer just be for special events anymore, but for your entire attraction. Adding wristbands as part of your reopening strategy will help your venue manage things like capping daily admissions, enforcing time slots for admission, particular areas, or groups.

	1. Track & Adhere to Limited Attraction Capacity Many attractions opening are limiting attendance to 25% - 50% of park capacity to maintain social distancing guidelines. Consider utilizing wristbands to keep track of the number of guests allowed in your venue at a given time. For example, brightly-colored wristbands give you the opportunity to identify and color-code each guest or group that enters your doors to make sure guests and staff adhere to the mandatory cap.
	2. Identify and Categorize Limited-Time Attractions Venues like theme parks, water parks, museums, and family entertainment centers are instituting not only daily capacity limits, but are introducing split attendance times as well. For instance, if your guests follow a pattern of arriving in the morning and leaving in the evening, you may want to split your day into morning and afternoon admissions. Some smaller venues may limit dwell time to a couple hours to better manage and track flow. Wristbands can play a key role in assisting with these new attendance procedures during these unprecedented times. Brightly-colored wristbands are the ideal visual identifier for staff. Issue a certain color wristband for each different time slot. Blue wristbands may categorize guests that arrive in the morning, and yellow may indicate afternoon hours.
	3. Custom Print Wristbands On-Demand and On-Site Another beneficial solution is to customize print-on-demand wristbands on-site at your venue. Designed to be used with a compatible direct thermal printer, you can print the exact number of wristbands you want when you need them. Offered in a variety of bright colors, consider implementing a color-coding system where you can easily interchange wristbands depending on the day, hour, group, or access area. Since you are able to print on-demand, colors can be changed as often as needed and staff can easily see which guests should be in the park or in a certain area at a given time.
	4. Capture Guest Capacity with Barcodes Print unique barcodes, QR codes, and text, (like arrival time, access type, or group name); onto each wristband to better manage guest capacity. Barcoding allows your attraction the opportunity to not only capture the number of guests in your venue and set a cap, but it can also be used to connect guests’ wristbands to your point of sale system to keep track of occupancy levels.
	5. Enhance Guest Experience with RFID Applications RFID wristbands offer also have the ability to manage guest capacity. RFID wristband dispensing kiosks allow you to reduce direct contact with your staff and track how many wristbands are dispensed. RFID checkpoints can even be installed to track attendance and the flow of foot traffic going into different locations. And RFID wristbands enable cashless point-of-sale throughout your venue, further reducing direct contact and providing guest convenience for all of their food and merchandise purchases.
	6. Assist with Staff Rotation and Timed Shifts Since parks will be operating with limited attendance, the number of employees may also be reduced. Wristbands, and/or customized ID holders, lanyards, or badges can also assist with staff rotation based on staggered or timed shifts, or groups. These identification solutions can also be customized with important safety and health information to enhance guest’s peace of mind and promote healthy reminders for all.

It happens to the best of us: we forget things. It’s human nature.

Keys get misplaced. TV remotes disappear. The name of that song you wanted to look up slips your mind. It’s frustrating: “It’s right on the tip of my tongue… I was just thinking about it a few minute ago!”

Strangely, forgotten items often include things that we use on a regular basis. You’d thing those everyday items would be easier to remember, but the brain works in mysterious ways. Cell phone chargers. Car Keys. Glasses. These are items that are essential to daily life, yet they often disappear.

Another item that often gets left behind? Employee ID badges.

Employee badges are going to vary from place to place. How they look and how they're used is going to depend on an organization's preferences. Some organizations might require employees to have their badges at all times, while others might not care as much.

Exactly like the other daily object, ID badges will sometimes be forgotten. This raises an important question: what should you do when an employee forgets his or her credential?

How you respond to a forgotten ID badge is going to depend on how secure you want your facility to be.

If a facility is a small office where all of the employees know each other and sensitive information isn't being shared, a forgotten ID badge isn't a huge deal.

If a facility a high-security or a massive complex with thousands of workers or sheltering high-value goods, being able to positively identify an employee is essential.

Deciding how seriously you want to take ID security will go a long way toward determining how to handle forgotten credentials.

Give out temporary badges

You can achieve this in a variety of ways. You could treat the employee as you'd treat any other visitor, using your Visitor Management solution to register the employee's presence and issue a paper/ID badge.

You could also create generic employee badges that your receptionist or human resources manager keeps at his or her desk. Forgetful employees could sign in to receive a badge at the beginning of the day, then return it at the day's end.

The sign-in/sign-out process would ensure that badges don't go missing, and would also serve as a way to encourage employees to be less forgetful in the future. After all, no one likes extra paperwork.

Pros: Employee is still registered in the system, no work time is lost

Cons: Mixes employees in with your visitor records, potentially creates more work for front desk staff

If your company is looking for some fun, you can have a laugh by poking a little fun at that employee.

One of our customers uses a special badge that looks and acts like a normal ID badge but says "I FORGOT MY BADGE AT HOME" in large letters. If your employees have a good sense of humor, this is a good way to lighten the mood while still allowing the employee to go about his or her day.

Zero-tolerance in some cases?

It may seem harsh, but for high-security operations, adopting a zero-tolerance for forgotten badges can ensures that you don’t allow anyone on site without authorization. This policy eliminates concerns about deceptive people posing as employees who forgot their badges. It also sends a message to employees and other personnel that the organization takes security seriously, which could have positive effects on other areas of the business.

Also, if an employee forgets his or her badge and is forced to go home and retrieve it, the chances of that employee forgetting it again would almost certainly decrease.

Adding employee ID badges to your facility is a great way to increase security and professionalism without busting the budget.

We have decades of experience creating badges of all kinds, and would love to help you get your employee ID program started, whether you want to print your own ID badges on site or want us to custom print them for you.

Contact us

Some Tips and Tools to Organise the Return to School While Limiting the Risks

Many questions arise about the resumption of school activity and the management of pupils in respect of social distancing measures. Several solutions are being studied and others are already being tested in various European countries such as Denmark. All of them involve the management of people flows, their circulation and distancing.

While the practical measures will vary according to the infrastructure of each institution, the basic principle is the same for all: the division of students and teachers into small groups whose only contacts would be limited to this very group.

With the help of identification wristbands and badges, it will be easy for students and teachers to identify instantly the different groups and spaces that are reserved for them.

Quick Deliverable Solutions For:

• The fast implementation of an efficient and economical people management system and thus reassures parents, teachers and students.
• Limit the risks of contamination by reducing the interaction possibilities within the institution.
• In the event of contamination, immediately identify the risk group and its members to inform them quickly.

Everyday we hear about being more eco-friendly and sustainable. No big surprise when we know 7 billion inhabitants withdraw what they need from the finite resources available to us all. A resolution that has no downsides and that everyone can participate in is to increase our diligence around sustainability.

In the events and conferences environment, how can you put sustainability at the heart of everything you do? We take our environmental credentials seriously and have long recognised the vital importance of sustainability, not just in how we operate but also in the solutions we develop for our customers.

For many years we have been proud members of Sedex, a not for profit membership organisation dedicated to driving improvements in ethical and responsible business practices in global supply chains. We also put sustainability front and central when it comes to new product development. Whether it’s a reusable badge such as our chalkboard badges that you just wipe clean to re-use, or our range of lanyards made from both 100% recycled materials and sustainable bamboo, we aim to make it simple for you to makeyour events sustainable. If you have resolved to make your events greener then drop us a line and we’ll show you how.

Mark Alderman, PDC BIG UK and Ireland Regional Business Manager at the PDC BIG Ipswich Manufacturing Facility

PDC BIG have been supplying name badges to leading retailers, finance, events, healthcare and leisure companies for nearly 30 years. Here are 5 of the biggest reasons that organisations and companies should use name badges.

London December 2018. PDC BIG is celebrating thirty years as a UK market leader for Name Badges with industry accolades, achievements and awards. During this time, it has enjoyed a trailblazing journey as a print, design and brand expert, leading the way with innovative and customer-focused solutions for companies of all sizes across all sectors.

The PA Club, a fast-growing premier networking group and membership organisation handling over 60 international events a year uses PDC BIG’s award-winning re-usable Selfit® name badge system as part of its event organisation.

PDC BIG is a global leader in people identification. We connect people, products, and technology through innovative ID solutions that deliver superior customer experiences worldwide. We are focused on quality and excellent customer service.