Security System Using Smart Card
We use innovative technologies on a daily basis not only for capturing our everyday life, work or other matters of our interest, but also for storing important information that is to be accessed under restricted conditions only. Thus secured protection of personal data is a top-priority task in the modern society. There has been an effort made to complete this task by implementing small data storage devices – smart cards – that are able to perform such security-related activities, as authentication, encryption, and/or signing. As Wolfgang Rankl states, if used properly, smart cards can strongly enhance the quality of the protection of personal data (Rankl, 38). He emphasizes that one of the most important advantages of smart cards is that their stored data can be protected against unauthorised access and manipulation. As far as the data can only be accessed via a serial interface that is controlled by an operating system and security logic, confidential data can be written to the card and stored in a manner that prevents them from ever being read from outside the card (Rankl, Effing 18).
In smart cards, cryptography is used as a means of encoding and decoding necessary information. Wolfgang Rankl claims that maintaining the secrecy of messages (confidentiality), ensuring the integrity and the authenticity of messages and ensuring the binding force (non-repudiation) of messages are the four objectives of cryptography that are crucial for the high level of reliability of smart cards. Timothy M. Jurgusen and Scott B. Guthery share his point of view, placing the high value on the authorization mechanism as well (Jurgusen, Scott 95). Due to the fact that smart cards can securely store relatively small amounts of data, provide an environment for the secure execution of programs, and have tamper resistance, Timothy M. Jurgusen and Scott B. Guthery hold the opinion that they are excellent facilities to store cryptographic keys through which the identity of the cardholder can be authenticated (Jurgusen, Scott 289). That makes these cards a powerful security tool, which cannot be overlooked by any company or organisation, willing to perform activities with no threat of data leakage or their misuse.
References
Rankl W., Effing W. (2003) Smart Card Handbook. Chichester: John Wiley and Sons Ltd.
Rankl W. (2007) Smart Card Applications. Chichester: John Wiley and Sons Ltd.
Jurgusen T.M., Guthery S.B. (2002) Smart Cards: The Developer’s Toolkit. Upper Saddle River: Prentice Hall …
