Smart cards are made of plastic, usually polyvinyl chloride. The card may embed a hologram to prevent counterfeiting. Smart cards provide strong

Transcription

1 Smart Cards By:

2 Definition Smart cards, chip card, or integrated circuit card (ICC) are card with embedded integrated circuits that contain a computer chip capable of carrying out a cryptographic protocol.

3 Smart cards are made of plastic, usually polyvinyl chloride. The card may embed a hologram to prevent counterfeiting. Smart cards provide strong security authentication for single sign-on within large organizations. The two largest vendors of operating systems for smart cards are MAOSCO (an industry consortium) and Microsoft.

4 Contact Cards Contact cards require a reader to assist the connection. The card must be inserted into a device that touches the contact points of the card. Contact cards are usually 3-volt and 5-volt models. Contact card readers are usually built into company buildings and assets that are connected to a computer desktop s serial or Universal Serial Bus (USB) port, laptop card slots, and keyboards.

5 Contact Card Signals VCC = Power supply input RST = Reset signal, used to reset the card's communications. CLK = Provides the card with a clock signal, from which data communications timing is derived. GND= Ground (reference voltage). VPP= Programming voltage input I/O =Serial input and output C4, C8 =The two remaining contacts are AUX1 and AUX2 respectively, and used for USB interfaces and other uses

6 Contactless Cards Contactless cards requires only close proximity to a reader. Both the reader and the card have antennae, and both communicate using radio frequencies over this contactless link. The transmission is encoded and can be encrypted by using a combination of a card vendor s hard-coded chip algorithms, randomly generated session numbers, and the card holder s certificate, secret key, or PIN.

7 Dual-interface Cards Dual-interface cards have a single chip with both contact and contactless interfaces. With dual-interface cards, it is possible to access the same chip using either a contact or contactless interface with a very high level of security.

8 Hybrid Cards A hybrid card has two chips, one with a contact interface and one with a contactless interface. The two chips are not interconnected.

9 Smart cards usually use memory chips or microcontroller chips. A memory chip is like a small floppy disk with optional security. Memory chips are less expensive than microcontrollers. Cards that use memory chips are less secure because they depend on the security of the card. Memory chips are ideal for situations that require low or medium security.

10 A microcontroller chip can add, delete, and manipulate information in its memory. A microcontroller is like a miniature computer, with an input/output port, operating system, and hard disk. Smart cards with an embedded microcontroller have the unique ability to store large amounts of data, carry out their own on-card functions (e.g., encryption and digital signatures) and interact intelligently with a smart card reader.

11 Use of smart cards Secure identity applications - employee ID badges, citizen ID documents, electronic passports, driver s licenses, online authentication devices Healthcare applications - citizen health ID cards, physician ID cards, portable medical record cards Payment applications - contact and contactless credit/debit cards, transit payment cards Telecommunications applications - GSM Subscriber Identity Modules, pay telephone payment cards

12 The Benefits They provide tamper-resistant storage for protecting private keys and other forms of personal information. Enable portability of evidence of authority and other private information between computers at work, at home, or on the road.

13 Sources