27-04-2011, 11:50 AM
Presented By:
Ripa Shah
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Smart card technology
What is smart card?
Simple plastic card, just at the size of a credit card.
Two types:-
1.Memory only chips
2.Microprocessor chips
Beside its tiny little structure it has many uses and wide variety of applications ranging from
phone cards to digital identification of the individuals.
These application could be; identity of the customer, library card, e−wallet, keys to various doors, etc... And
only one card can be issued to an end−entity for all these applications. Smart cards hold these data within different files, and , as you will read, these data is only visible to its program depending on the operating system of the card.
These data files are arranged in a file system much like a Linux directory structure.
Classification of smart card
As smart cards have embedded microprocessors, they need energy to function and some mechanism to communicate, receiving and sending the data.
Contact Smart card
Some smart cards have golden plates, contact pads, at one corner of the card. This type of smart cards are called Contact Smart Cards.
The plates are used to supply the necessary energy and to communicate via direct electrical contact with the reader. When you insert the card into the reader, the contacts in the reader sit on the plates.
A smart card pinout
Signals
Where:-
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 - originally an input for a higher voltage to program persistent memory (e.g., EEPROM), but now deprecated.
I/O
Serial input and output (half-duplex).
C4, C8
The two remaining contacts are AUX1 and AUX2 respectively, and used for USB interfaces and other uses.[7]
Contactless smart card
Some smart cards do not have a contact pad on their surface.
The connection between the reader and the card is done via radio frequency (RF).
But they have small wire loop embedded inside the card. This wire loop is used as an inductor to supply the energy to the card and communicate with the reader.
When you insert the card into the readers RF field, an induced current is created in the wire loop and used as an energy source.
With the modulation of the RF field, the current in the inductor, the communication takes place.
The readers of smart cards usually connected to the computer via USB or serial port.
As the contactless cards are not needed to be inserted into the reader, usually they are only composed of a serial interface for the computer and an antenna to connect to the card.
The readers for contactless smart cards may or may not have a slot.
The reason is some smart cards can be read upto 1.5 meters away from the reader but some needs to be positioned a few millimeters from the reader to be read accurately.
Hybrids
Dual-interface cards implement contactless and contact interfaces on a single card with some shared storage and processing.
An example is Porto's multi-application transport card
Smart card Readers
Contact smart card readers are used as a communications medium between the smart card and a host (e.g., a computer, a point of sale terminal) or a mobile telephone.
Advantages
Smart card can provide:-
identification
Authentication
data storage
application processing
Examples Of Smart card
Applications
Computer Security:-
The Mozilla Firefox web browser can use smart cards to store certificates for use in secure web browsing.
Smart cards support functionality has been added to Windows Live Passports.
Financial:-
Smart cards serve as credit or ATM cards, fuel cards, mobile phone SIMs, authorization cards for pay television, household utility pre-payment cards, high-security identification and access-control cards, and public transport and public phone payment cards.
Smart cards may also be used as electronic wallets
Health Care (Medical):-
Smart health cards can improve the security and privacy of patient information, provide a secure carrier for portable medical records, reduce health care fraud, support new processes for portable medical records, provide secure access to emergency medical information.
Identification:-
A quickly growing application is in digital identification. In this application, the cards authenticate identity.
E.g. PKI (Public Key Infrastructure)
Smart licenses hold up-to-date records of driving offenses and unpaid fines. They also store personal information, license type and number, and a photograph.
Problems With Smart Card
Hardware Security:-
All data and passwords on a card are stored in the EEPROM (Electronically Erasable Programmable Read Only Memory) and can be erased or modified by an unusual voltage supply. Therefore some security processors implemented sensors for environmental changes.
Thank You!