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We explain how you can use a NFC-enabled smart card to unlock doors by simply placing them against a reader.
A smart card is a typical plastic card that contains an embedded computer chip which is either a memory or a microprocessor type. The data that the chip is responsible for storing and transmitting pertains to either value, information or a combination of both. This data is both stored and processed within the card’s chip. The card data is transmitted via a reader, which is the outward facing component of the smart card security computing system. Several systems across a wide range of commercial sectors, like banking, healthcare, finance, entertainment, and media nowadays use smart card security systems in their applications. Applications using smart cards benefit from the several security features that these chip cards provide. The efficiency of the systems is elevated to a large extent due to the smart cards.
Smart Card Security Technology
The need for convenience and security of any transaction has made the deployment of smart cards highly relevant. One of the primary uses of smartcards is to provide safe storage of confidential information of users like account identity. In general, smart cards are preferred to other machine readable cards as they incur a much lower cost of maintenance. Also, unlike other card security systems like magnetic stripe cards, smart card security systems put all the necessary information and functions on the card itself. Magnetic stripe cards divide the information and function load between themselves and the reader or the central server. Thanks to this, the user does not need access to obscure databases during transaction processes.
Smart cards also facilitate the secure transaction of data through any type of virtual network. Unlike the magnetic stripes which store negligible amounts of read-only data, smart cards are fitted with microprocessors which enable the cards to receive, store, update, and make decisions about data. This means that if you’ve been issued a smart card, but your information gets updated, you don’t need a new card, but rather can update the information straight on your existing card. This greatly reduces the risk of losing your card or misplacing the old one and compromising your security.
Also in terms of security, smart cards protect against a wide array of security threats starting from careless storage of user passwords to intricate system hackings. In a fully online system, you’ll need some method of storing and remembering all your passwords, but users are often careless and misplace or share their passwords, meaning that they have to change them often or risk getting hacked. Resetting password is a highly expensive task for an organization. Thus smart card security systems offer a highly cost-effective solution for this issue. The most relevant and prominent applications of smartcard can be categorized in the following way:
Access Your Office the Modern Way
Discover why thousands of companies run on Kisi.
Smart cards can be divided broadly into three categories, depending on the technology of the security chip they contain (the rest of the card is just a piece of plastic!)
The chips of the smart cards are manufactured from silicon wafers, attached with aluminum contact areas, coated in an epoxy resin and embedded inside the plastic cards. The efficiency of the smart card depends on the proper functioning of the chip.
Smart cards operate on the power supplied from an electrical connector inside a card reader or indirectly from the radio frequency transmission of contactless readers. A smart card consists of the following functional components:
Technology and security are closely associated. The ability of smart cards to self contain data makes them immune from external attacks. There are 3 different types of the smart card security:
Markets that have been traditionally using machine readable card technologies like barcode and magnetic stripe, are increasingly adopting the use of smart cards. This conversion is done after the return on investment is accounted by each card user year after year. Smart cards are most often being used in application which strictly needs security and substantiation.
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