Hardware and Software Symbiosis Helps Smart Card Evolution

The need to manage and secure a rapidly growing information network has focused increasing attention on smart card technology. Over the past decade, smart cards evolved from offering basic memory to complex systems with chips that incorporate powerful processing units with dedicated peripherals. This evolution enabled a wide range of applications. Smart card applications include financial transactions, e-commerce, physical access control, health and transportation services, and access to such wireless systems as the global system for mobile communication (GSM) and the upcoming universal mobile communications system third-generation mobile phones. Such applications depend on smart cards equipped to perform onboard cryptographic digital-signature encryption and authentication. Smart card operating systems (OSs) use these cryptographic features to manage data storage and control access to private information. 1 Smart Cards as Security Tokens Essentially, smart cards serve as security tokens by securely storing users’ personal data and service providers’ private information. The cards interact within a system using special communication interfaces and dedicated protocols. Smart cards provide highly reliable mechanisms for storing, accessing, and using data in nonvolatile memory. Data access control and data management follow a security policy based on cryptographic services and defined for a specific application. Europe produces most of the smart cards, Asia has adopted them, and US interest in the technology is growing. An inherent symbiosis between hardware and software in smart cards will be central to their continued evolution. Three examples —secure storage, cryptography services, and smart card flexibility— will demonstrate this symbiosis.