smartcards



Smart Cards Article Analysis  The Smart Card is a recently new introduced e-commerce development that helps protect consumer’s capital and identity. Inside most Smart Cards are embedded microprocessor, which contain an integrated circuit. The chip within the cards includes “a microchip as the central processing unit, random access memory ( [|RAM] ) and data storage of around 10MB”.  Most smart cards are designed to look and feel like a regular credit or debit card. The cards are seen as the future because they are small, compact, and exchange data where they store data. However the greatest importance of the smart card today is the use of its privacy. The smart card works as an “electronic recording device”. The information placed on the smartcard automatically checks the identification of the user. Most credit/debit cards with a chip also require a pin for a second verification. The integrated circuit is covered by a metallic film, which contains all the information. The only way to access the information is through a specialized chip operating system. The system reads the “bytes stored in memory into useful information”. The chip cannot be copied therefore in order to access information one would need to physically hold the card through a terminal. Smart cards run on operating systems such as MULTOS and Java Card. Although most retailers currently hold terminals that use smart cards, there are substantial amount terminals that still need to built according to the EMV standard. An important element to remember is that as students we always use smart cards. These embedded microprocessors in the University of Toronto’s Tcard is used for identification in exams, printing/photocopying, UPass, Meal Plans, and accessing computer laboratories



Discussion

 * //How can we integrate the use of smart cards in our everyday life to better protect ourselves?//**

A person with an important USB key can benefit from the encryption of a micro processor. - Cezar Cazan

Since smart cards have already been implemented in the most important aspects of our lives (Visa, Debit, school ID) it is difficult to come up with a place where they are necessary to be implemented into. An area in which i think they could possibly be beneficial for use in stores. Customers could have smart cards for individual stores which, when swiped, could give employees customer information and history with the company as well as have payment information. This is a possibility in the future of smart cards which are just going to be increasingly used in many different industries in years to come. - Rosalyn Commisso

Courtesy of http://www.tech-faq.com/smart-card.shtml (see article