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The smart card is one of the latest additions to the world of information technology.
Similar in size to today’s plastic payment card, the smart card has microprocessor or memory chip embedded in it that, when coupled with a reader, has the processing power to serve many different applications. ... The data stored on a smart card is protected by an eight-digit Personal Identification Number (PIN) of your own choice. ... ) As an access-control device, smart cards make personal and business data available only to the appropriate users. ... Smart cards provide data portability, security and convenience.
Smart Cards are not new. The first patent was filed in France in 1974 and the first cards were used in France in 1982. ... The Smart card provided the mechanism to move that verification off-line, reducing the cost without sacrificing any security.
Smart cards come in two varieties: memory and microprocessor. Memory cards simply store data and can be viewed as a small floppy disk with optional security. ...
Smart cards have two different types of interfaces: contact and contactless. Contact smart cards are inserted into a smart card reader, making physical contact with the reader. However, contactless smart cards have an antenna embedded inside the card that enables communication with the reader without physical contact. ...
The driving factors of the growing interest in smart cards include the decline in their cost and the growing concern that magnetic stripe cards cannot provide the protection required to thwart breaches of security and various types of fraud.
The three main and important features and characteristics of the smart card, from which various benefits can be derived, are convenience, security and intelligence.
The smart card is convenient because it is lightweight and their familiar credit card size provides an easy-to-use, portable form factor. The smart cards use is further simplified with the use of a personal identification number (PIN), which the holder memorizes and uses to access all the information the smart card holds. The convenience feature of the smart card also allows for cost effectiveness because it saves the administrators money since they will not have to buy different materials to manufacture the different access cards needed by staff and students, who in turn will realize that they save a lot of their time using one card.
The security features makes the chip in the smart card tamper resistant and performs encryption, that is, the scrambling and encoding of data to prevent unauthorised persons from reading or tampering with the data. Only individuals with access to a password or key can decrypt the PIN coded and or read-write protected data stored on the smart card, which has different serial numbers to avoid confusion among cardholders.
Two factors contribute to the increased security of smart cards. First, there is decreased possibility of copying the smart card’s private key because it never leaves the card. The smart card uses its on-board CPU to compute the transmitted data’s digital signature. Fraudulent use of the smart card’s private key is less likely because the attacker/hacker has to both steal the card and know the user’s password or PIN. Guessing a card’s password is usually fruitless because most cards use their on-board CPU to lock up after several wrong guesses.
Intelligence is another equally important feature of the smart card, since unlike any other magnetic strip cards, the smart card is able to accept, store and send information. Smart cards can communicate with the computing devices through a smart card reader. The information can be updated without having to issue new cards through web browser.
Approximate Word count = 3003
Approximate Pages = 12
(250 words per page double spaced)
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