smart card

• Dial a connection on a mobile telephone and be charged on a per-call basis
• Establish your identity when logging on to an Internet access provider or to an online bank
• Pay for parking at parking meters or to get on subways, trains, or buses
• Give hospitals or doctors personal data without filling out a form
• Make small purchases at electronic stores on the Web (a kind of cybercash)
• Buy gasoline at a gasoline station

Over a billion smart cards are already in use. Currently, Europe is the region where they are most used. Ovum, a research firm, predicts that 2.7 billion smart cards will be shipped annually by 2003. Another study forecasts a $26.5 billion market for recharging smart cards by 2005. Compaq and Hewlett-Packard are reportedly working on keyboards that include smart card slots that can be read like bank credit cards. The hardware for making the cards and the devices that can read them is currently made principally by Bull, Gemplus, and Schlumberger.

How Smart Cards Work

An industry standard interface between programming and PC hardware in a smart card has been defined by the PC/SC Working Group, representing Microsoft, IBM, Bull, Schlumberger, and other interested companies. Another standard is called OpenCard. There are two leading smart card operating systems: JavaCard and MULTOS.

Learn more about Security Token and Smart Card Technology

	Identity and Access Management Services, Systems and Technologies: This Security School explores critical topics related to helping security practitioners establish and maintain an effective identity and access management plan.
Exploring authentication methods: How to develop secure systems: Discover authentication options and learn how to implement, maintain and secure methods of authentication, such as biometrics and smartcards to avoid breaches and protect data.
Quiz: Next-generation authentication: A five-question quiz to test your knowledge of the content presented by expert Mark Diodati in this lesson of SearchSecurity.com's Identity and Access Management Security School.
	Future authentication technologies: How to choose the right product: In this Identity and Access Management Security School lesson, Burton Group's Mark Diodati explores innovative and cost-effective user-based authentication technologies.
Spy vs. Spy: Excerpt from Chapter 6 of Spies Among Us: How to Stop the Spies, Terrorists, Hackers, and Criminals You Don't Even Know You Encounter Every Day.
Lesson/Domain 2 -- Security School: Training for CISSP Certification: SearchSecurity.com Security School webcasts are focused on CISSP training. Each lesson corresponds to a specific domain in the CISSP exam's "Common Body of Knowledge."
Authenticating users: User authentication is critcal to ensure proper authorization and access to systems and services. Peruse these resources on two-factor and Web services authentication, and more.

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