Smart Cards Our Inevitable Future

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What are smart cards?

Credit card sized plastic card with an embedded chip.
May come in 2 types:
Memory
Micro-processor
Contact and Contact-less type cards.
Used as a replacement for magnetic stripe cards.

Why use smart cards?

Can store currently up to 7000 times more data than a magnetic stripe card.
Information that is stored on the card can be updated.
Magnetic stripe cards are vulnerable to many types of fraud.
Lost/Stolen Cards
Skimming
Carding/ Phishing
Greatly enhances security by communicating with card readers using PKI algorithms.
A single card can be used for multiple applications (cash, identification, building access, etc.)
Smart cards provide a 3-fold approach to authentic identification:
Pin
Smartcard
Biometrics

Security of Smart Cards

Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) algorithms such as DES, 3DES, RSA and ECC.
Key pair generation.
Variable timing/clock fluctuation.
0.6 micron components.
Data stored on the card is encrypted.
Pin Blocking.

Elliptical Curve Cryptography

y²=x³+ax+b
Q(x,y) =kP(x,y)
Uses point multiplication to compute and ECDLP to crack.
Beneficial for portable devices.
Cryptographic coprocessors can be added to speed up encryption and decryption