Who Am I?

Philosophers have wondered for years on “Who am I?” In the contemporary world, you won’t have to worry about this question any more! A simple smart card will carry all the information necessary to identify you.

Smart cards have been developed to perfection for over a decade now. And the concept has reached a very important stage
in its development. You can look forward to the day when all you need to carry is just a single card for all your transactions. 

It can even be used for interactions with governmental institutions and other agencies. The card can also allow you to register your attendance at the office and log in to your office computer and LAN. 

The potential for the use of smart card technology relating to authentication or validation of cardholders has already been established beyond doubt. The use of smart card technology can alleviate some of the concerns associated with the use of identity cards. 

All of us have gone through the unsuccessful implementation of voters´ ID cards –those cards that carry your photo as a smudgy black patch and claim to identify you as the same person in that so-called photo! 

If you have faced a situation where you had to identify yourself and had to run around to provide acceptable evidence, you will appreciate the importance of a smart card. Moreover, today different agencies demand different proofs of identity–ration card, driving license, voter´s ID, passport and so on, creating further confusion. 

PROS AND CONS 

While the smart card will have its ease of use, there will also be some fear attached to it. Users might feel that their every action or movement can be tracked by government agencies. On one hand, people will have the ability to carry with them essential information about themselves at all times. An opposite view is that it will become a tag that carries an extensive dossier of their activities, good or bad, from their past, and details that can be used to manipulate them.

Card technology, using magnetic strips, requires the use of extensive online systems where verifications are processed. The smart card, specifically with its ability to actively participate in an authentication process, enables validation of identity to be performed on a local system terminal. 

Storage of the reference template on the card (probably using biometrics) allows the terminal to perform a verification of identity, without the need to access a central database. To alleviate the fear about tracking, expressed earlier, verification terminals could be programmed to verify, but not record.

COMMON GROUND FOR SUCCESS

For successful global implementation of smart card technology, there is an important need to standardize ways to hold and use a common dataset. Developers of card-based applications must work with such a dataset. 

Data held on the smart card should be a standard profile of the cardholder, including the name, address, sex, date of birth, preferred language, etc. The dataset also needs to be designed in a flexible manner, so as to allow for biometrics, like fingerprints, to be optionally included. The standards need to be adhered to by all card manufacturers and issuers before smart cards can become a globally viable concept.

Though the chip on smart cards is relatively secure, the criminally minded will certainly find means of overcoming the existing security levels. A significant improvement in the technology needs to be made before everyone can confidently accept it. 

Usage of credit cards is now a matured concept and we have all become accustomed to relying on debit and credit cards.

Some of us now carry an average of five to six plastic cards in our wallets and these magnetic strips and pin numbers provide us a vast array of facilities. With smart cards, it will be enough just to carry one single card!

The microprocessor chip that accounts for the smartness in these cards offers greater capacity and security than the magnetic strip on credit and debit cards. Its capabilities open a wide variety of potential markets. 

Though identification cards remain on the top of the list for government agencies, security pass cards, loyalty cards from retailers, petrol companies and such other businesses are amongst the many applications that will give a boost to smart card technology.

WANT TO KNOW MORE

The name smart card, though captures the imagination, is an ambiguous term. ISO uses the term, integrated circuit card (ICC) to describe all those devices where an integrated circuit is contained within a plastic identification card. The card is 85.6 mm x 53.98 mm x 0.76 mm and is similar to the credit card with its magnetic strip.

ICC comes in two forms, contact and contact-less. The former is easy to identify because of its gold connector plate. It is also the most commonly seen ICC to date. The chip itself varies considerably between different manufacturers and for different applications. 

As the primary use of the smart card (ICC to be more accurate) is for the portable storage and retrieval of data, the important component of the IC is a memory module. Some cards may also contain memory with security logic. 

HOW IT WORKS

The term ‘application’ is used to describe the software or programs that the ICC implements. In the simplest case, the application may be just a file manager for organizing storage and retrieval of data. Such an application may be totally implemented in the logic of the chip. 

Similarly the chip must contain the communications logic by which it accepts commands from the card acceptance device (CAD) and through which it receives and transmits the application data. The asynchronous type of data transmission to and from the cards is similar to that used by the serial RS232C connector found on the PC. 

The card is personalized to the particular user by loading data into files in the memory in the same way that the application code is loaded into its memory. 

The thickness of the card is particularly important for smart card readers because of the mechanical construction of the card connector mechanism. This device consists of a movable carriage that positions the card under the connector head while applying the necessary wiping and pressure action.

Variation in thickness or even slight warping of the card can cause communications failure. And the failure of a smart card means a temporary “Loss of Identity” for you. Which means that you are, but you aren´t! And the question will arise in your mind again, “Who am I?”

ASHOK DONGRE 

 technical consultant