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Simple Pass, a RFID and smart card information blog.
Providing a daily dose of news and features from the world of RFID (radio frequency identification), smart tags, and wireless industry for both the consumer and RFID professional.

Use Your Driver's License as a Debit Card

A startup promises to save both drivers and gas station owners a bundle at the pump by cutting credit cards out of the payment process. A two-year-old company called National Payment Card allows customers to pay for gas by swiping their driver's license and entering a PIN.

Aurora Bisig is a big believer in retailer discount cards. At her last count, she had a dozen—from Sam's Club (WMT) to nearly every grocery store in Central Texas. So this March, when the Austin (Tex.) insurance agent pulled into a gas station for a fill-up and saw a sign promising an additional 10¢ off per gallon for signing up with a new e-payment program, she was interested.

She was also pleased to learn that the "RollbackPrice" program wouldn't require her to add another piece of plastic to her overstuffed wallet. Instead, after entering her driver's license number and bank account information online with a two-year-old company called National Payment Card (NPC), she'd be able to pay for gas just by swiping her driver's license (linked directly, via the existing magnetic stripe, to her bank account), and entering a personal identification number.

» businessweek.com [ Contribute: submit link / submit article / submit company ]

VeriSign to offer one-time-use passwords passwords on bank card

VeriSign is announcing that a deal is in the works to provide credit cards with one-time-use passwords. By placing the technology directly on the card, it becomes more convenient and provides an extra layer of security for online credit-card transactions. A cardholder would type in their information as normal and then would be prompted to enter the passcode displayed on the card. This means a user would need to have the physical card in hand in order to use it, thus thwarting identity thieves who steal credit card information but do not possess the card itself. VeriSign said it expects to announce a major bank using its cards in May.

» VeriSign

Hypercom Corners New PIN Pad Technology Market

Hypercom Releases the Industry's First Universal Contactless PIN Pad; Touchscreen Device Also Accepts EMV & Mag Stripe Cards, Offers WiFi Option

Global payment technology leader Hypercom Corporation announced the release of its new P4100 PIN Pad, allowing a variety of payment verification methods to vendors including contactless, EMV smart card or magnetic stripe payments, a touchscreen display, and a vendor-agnostic architecture enabling integration with Hypercom, VeriFone or Ingenico card payment terminals as well as leading electronic cash register systems.

The company is also offering a WiFi option for use with wireless and IP-enabled payment terminals. The system meets security standards recently established by Visa International, MasterCard Worldwide and JCB International to ensure secure PIN entry and privacy while offering multi-application capabilities. According to Hypercom Senior VP Neil P. Hudd, "this device provides maximum sales opportunities because of the variety of needs it serves as well as the ability to support both Hypercom and non-Hypercom hardware. No other vendor offers a comparable product, so we have the market to ourselves.”

» SeekingAlpha

Smartcard

A smart card, or integrated circuit(s) card (ICC), is defined as any integrated circuitry embedded into a flat, plastic body. Although there are a diverse range of applications, there are two broad categories of ICCs. Memory cards contain only non-volatile memory storage components, and perhaps some specific security logic. Microprocessor cards contain memory and microprocessor components.

The standard perception of a "smart card" is a microprocessor card of credit-card shaped dimensions (or less, e.g. the GSM SIM card) with various tamper-resistant properties (e.g. a secure cryptoprocessor, secure file system, human-readable features) and is capable of providing security services (e.g. confidentiality of information in the memory).

Smartcard Applications

The applications of smartcards include their use as credit or ATM cards, SIMs for mobile phones, authorization cards for pay television, high security identification and access control cards, public transport tickets, etc.

Smart cards may also be used as electronic wallets. The smart card chip can be loaded with electronic money, which can be used to pay parking meters, vending machines, and merchants. Cryptographic protocols protect the exchange of money between the smart card and the accepting machine. Examples for this are Proton, GeldKarte, Moneo and Quick.

A large growing application is smart ID cards. In this application the cards are used for authentication of identity. Examples include the US Department of Defense Common Access Card (CAC), and their use by many governments as ID cards for their citizens. When combined with biometrics smartcards can provide two or three factor authentication. Smart cards are a privacy enhancing technology and when used in conjunction with appropriate security and privacy policies can form a highly effective identity authentication technology.

Smartcards have been advertised as suitable for these tasks, because they are engineered to be tamper resistant. The embedded chip of a smart card normally implements some cryptographic algorithm. Information about the inner workings of this algorithm can be obtained if the precise time and electrical current required for certain encryption or decryption operations is measured. A number of research projects have now demonstrated the feasibility of this line of attack. Counter measures have been proposed.

Another problem of smart cards may be the failure rate. The plastic card in which the chip is embedded is fairly flexible, and first time users are insufficiently careful with their card. Smart cards are often carried in wallets or pockets, which is a fairly harsh environment for a chip. However, for large banking systems, the failure management cost is more than compensated by the fraud cost reduction.

via [ SimplePass ]

Smartcards

Contact smartcard

In a contact-type smart card, the chip can be recognised by an area of gold-plated contacts about 1 cm close to the short side of the card. The cards do not contain a battery; power is supplied by the card reader.

The ISO/IEC 7816 series of standards define:

• the physical shape of the smart card
• the positions and shapes of its electrical connectors
• the communications protocols and power voltages to be applied
• the functionality
• the format of the commands sent to the card and returned by the card

Contactless smartcard

A second type is the non-contact type called contactless smart card, where the chip communicates with the card reader through wireless self-powered induction technology (106-848 kbit/s).

The standards for the contactless protocol for smart cards are ISO/IEC 14443 (type A and B) from the year 2001, which allows communication distances up to 10 cm. There have been proposals for ISO 14443 type C, D, E and F that have yet to be accepted by the ISO standards committee. An alternative standard for contactless smartcard is ISO 15693, which allows communication distances up to 50 cm.

An example of a widely used contactless smartcard is Hong Kong's Octopus card, which predates the ISO/IEC 14443 standard. For use on public transportation, Malaysia introduced the Touch 'n Go smartcard in 1997, Paris introduced the Calypso card in October 2001, JR East introduced the Suica Card for the Tokyo area in November 2001, and London introduced the Oyster card in January 2004. In 2002, the Chicago Transit Authority introduced the Chicago Card. Taipei also has smartcard system called EasyCard from Taipei Smart Card Corporation. Boston plans to introduce the Charlie Card in 2006. Melbourne plans to have a statewide contactless-smartcard based ticketing system installed by 2007.

A related contactless technology is RFID (radio frequency identification) that in certain cases can be used for similar applications to contactless smartcard such as for electronic toll collection. RFID generally do not include writeable memory or microcontroller processing capability as contactless smartcard do.

There are dual-interface cards that implement contactless and contact interfaces on a single card with some shared storage and processing. An example is Malaysia's multi application smartcard identification called MyKad that uses both contact Proton and contactless Mifare (ISO 14443A) chips.

Telephone Card

A telephone card, or phone card for short, is a small card, usually resembling a credit card, used to pay for telephone services. The exact system for payment, and the way in which the card is used to place a phone call, depend on the overall telecommunication system. But in general a phone card is purchased with a specific balance, from which the cost of calls made is deducted. Phone cards are disposable; when the balance is exhausted, you buy a new card, rather than having the old one re-filled.

The French payphones were the first large size deployment of smart cards: instead of change, users would insert a simple pre-paid smart card from which units would be deducted during the connection.

In many areas, most public payphones are card-operated, with the card inserted into a slot to be read like a credit card (technically more like a debit card, since the charges are deducted from an existing balance). Other phone cards come with a code printed on the card, which the user enters in order to place a call when payment is required. This may be done either from a public telephone, or on a personal phone to access long-distance and other services.

Telecom companies have also taken advantage of phone cards to place advertising on the card, or to feature celebrity portraits, artwork, or attractive photography to increase the appeal of the cards to consumers. This practice, combined with the disposability of the cards (encouraging individuals to purchase multiple cards), has led some people to start collecting phone cards as a hobby.

Keyword Tags

SimplePass (tm) dot com / Simple Pass Wireless Payment Smartcard

• Radio Frequency Id (RFID) systems
• Access control
• Time and Attendance Tracking

Smart card manufacturers
• Ask
• Axalto
• Gemplus
• Giesecke and Devrient
• IBM
• ID TECH
• I'M Technologies
• InSeal Contactless
• MaskTech
• Oberthur Card Systems
• ORGA Kartensysteme
• Setec
• Siemens
• Smart Card Integrators
• Telesec
• CircleSmartCard
• Zetes
• PRISM

Smart card chip manufacturers

• Atmel
• Infineon
• Philips/Mifare
• Renesas
• ST Microelectonics
• Inside Contactless (Dedicated to contactless smart cards)