Smart cards are increasingly introduced into our lives, gradually replacing their predecessors-plastic cards. At the same time, they stepped far beyond the borders of the banking sector and are used as club cards, means for paying for services, identifiers, etc. Let's analyze what is a smart card, its advantages and the scope of application.
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A smart card is called an improved variety of a plastic card, where a magnetic strip is replaced by a microcircuit. A design feature of this type of card is the presence of a microcontroller and a built -in operating system, which ensures the implementation of certain service operations and is performed in the most safe option. In addition, a cryptographic algorithm can be built into a smart card in a traditional version. In relation to the size-in this indicator, the standard smart card does not differ from a plastic analogue with a magnetic strip.
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Depending on which chip is installed on the card, smart cards are divided into several types: contact, contactless and hybrid. Contact requires direct contact with a POS-terminal or an ATM, but the contactless use RFID technology, so they just close to the reader. Hybrid smart cards can be used this way and so.
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The main advantages of a smart card over its “older sister” with a magnetic strip can be called the following qualities and characteristics: a high level of information protection, the ability to pay in POS-terminals of the retail network, even in Off-Line mode, as well as quickly block access to the card remote way. In addition, a smart card can use several applications at once (in relation to payment, loyalty programs, identification data of the owner of “plastic”, access to the building or premises, etc.).
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The scope of the smart cards today has quite wide boundaries: from a travel officer in public transport to use in production to perform complex processing of various kinds of information. They are used to pay for telephone and television services, in the form of bank cards of various functionality and social orientation cards. Smart cards can also play the role of a single key to enter the system, providing effective computer security, as well as the drive of discounts and bonuses. No less widely this type of “plastic” is used as an identity identifier.
Smart cards are a largely convenient product of modern technologies, which has not only advantages, but also disadvantages. There are not many of them, but they are still: the main drawback is still considered their high cost (for financial institutions), as well as the infrastructure that is not entirely developed for us for their use.
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