SmartCards
What is a Smartcard
A Smartcard is a standard credit card sized plastic card with an integrated circuit embedded in it. This integrated circuit includes a microprocessor and a bit of memory, which together hold information in electronic form and controls who uses the information and how they use it. The Smartcards ability to store and control many different types of information, as well as its large storage capacity, gives rise to several Smartcard applications. For example, a single Smartcard could take the place of a credit card, a debit card and even be used as an electronic purse to carry Electric-cash (E-cash). The plastic card itself can incorporate words and pictures or graphics printed on it which can be easily understood by the card holder as well as the people the card holder meets. The integrated circuit holds information in electronic form that can be easily, securely and accurately accessed by all sorts of electronic data processing equipment.
Some Smartcards are smarter than others, the smartness of a card depends on the complexity of the embedded processor, as well as the software that is installed on the chip. Even the simplest cards, like the pay phone cards, are smart enough that they are virtually impossible to copy or falsify. However, the simplest Smartcards do not provide any security against unauthorized use. In other words, if you lose your pay phone card, anyone else can use it. There are of course smarter cards that provide such security by incorporating a password or even a biometric identifier such as a fingerprint to restrict its use to one person. The most sophisticated cards can manage several passwords and can use authentication and ciphering techniques to provide virtually total security.
History behind Smartcards
In January 1974 Roland Moreno, a Frenchman and former reporter, devised a revolutionary new payment system. His idea was an electronic stored value application mounted on a ring. His idea was simple, when the bearer needed money, they would 'load'; the currency onto the ring therefore enabling the bearer to be able to spend electronic money at a store which had the suitable electronic equipment. Then in March 1974 Roland presented his project to a few French banks where he demonstrated a transaction-taking place from the ring to the reading device. In September 1974 the first chip was mounted onto an epoxy card and this was the birth of 'Smartcards';.
Then in the next few years Smartcards evolved and took on the size of a credit card.
Both token and biometrics are used in the apple pay to authenticate the users’ identity to ensure the security of the payment. The double lock will protect credit card information from hacker better. Apple claimed that the most sensitive financial data will be stored on a special, extra-secure partition of the iPhone's storage called Secure Element. The separation of Secure Element will avoid hacker to access the financial data easily. Also Apple sever will not store the credit card information and transaction information.
The usage of credit and debit cards have dramatically increased in the recent years. There was a projected total of 160 million credit card holders in 2012 and 654 million debit cards in 2015 (WalletHub/Nasdaq). Both credit and debit cards are methods of payment that do not require you to have cash on hand. Even though both a credit and debit card accomplish the same thing, there are many differences between the two methods of payment that could sway a customer’s choice towards one over the other.
Credit cards have quickly become the fast and convenient way to pay for everything, from parking tickets to online purchases. With one easy swipe or the punching in of a few numbers, you can make a major purchase now and pay for it later in monthly installments. It 's that easy.
Credit to buy goods or services has been around since the early 1900s, when consumers would use credit to buy goods or services and pay for them at a later date. The bill would send the bank containing a description of the items bough, their price, tax, and overall total. The consumer would visit to the bank and pay it before a set date set by the retailer. Today, “7 out of 10” Americans have one or more credit cards. Credit Card companies introduced the ‘chip,’ a magnetic strip in cards to prevent fraud in brick-and-mortar stores, in late 2015. Major credit card companies, such as Visa and MasterCard, pushed the new cards onto their cardholders by mailing out chip cards and letting the cardholder know their regular card
Today credit cards have become increasingly popular and more frequently used than cash when it comes to making purchases. In 2012 it was found that 27% of all point of sale purchases were paid with cash and by 2017 that percentage was expected to drop to 23%. While credit cards are clearly being used more many people are paying the consequences. But where and when did the credit card even come about?
To increase the use of digital wallet, it is required to educate consumers about the benefits of a digital wallet in simplifying and streamlining their purchasing experience.
Smart cards- They incorporate stored financial value and other important personal and financial information used for online payments.
...tics such as fingerprint images. In addition to the security features of Emirates identity card includes latest smart card technologies Such as accurate letters, ultraviolet ink and line art, where as these characteristics superior to current standards that are used such as bank credit cards (ID Card Features, 2013).
The fist computer, known as the abacus, was made of wood and parallel wires on which beads were strung. Arithmetic operations were performed when the beads were moved along the wire according to “programming” rules that had to be memorized by the user (Soma, 14). The second earliest computer, invented by Blaise Pascal in 1694, was a “digital calculating machine.” Pascal designed this first known digital computer to help his father, who was a tax collector. Pascal’s computer could only add numbers, and they had to be entered by turning dials (Soma, 32). It required a manual process like its ancestor, the abacus. Automation was introduced in the early 1800’s by a mathematics professor named Charles Babbage. He created an automatic calculation machine that was steam powered and stored up to 1000 50-digit numbers. Unlike its two earliest ancestors, Babbage’s invention was able to perform various operations. It relied on cards with holes punched in them, which are called “punch cards.” These cards carried out the programming and storing operations for the machine. Unluckily, Babbage’s creation flopped due to the lack of mechanical precision and the lack of demand for the product (Soma, 46). The machine could not operate efficiently because technology was t adequate to make the machine operate efficiently Computer interest dwindled for many years, and it wasn’t until the mid-1800’s that people became interested in them once again.
Banking cards offer consumers more security, convenience, and control than any other payment method. The wide variety of cards available – including credit, debit and prepaid – offers enormous flexibility, as well. These cards provide 2 factor authentication for secure payments e.g secure PIN and OTP. RuPay, Visa, MasterCard are some of the example of card payment systems. Payment cards give people the power to purchase items in stores, on the Internet, through mail-order catalogues and over the telephone. They save both customers and merchants’ time and money, and thus enable them for ease of transaction.
The use of credit and debit cards today are taking a tour in the sense that electronic cash is becoming more admissible as the world makes a switch towar...
The Banking industry has no doubt has witnessed advancement technology just like any other sector; adoption of e-banking that affects banking operations entirely. The continuous advance in technology characterize by a complex and competitive environment. Growth in electronic payments surpassed not only general economic growth but also growth in financial sectors. Using cards for transactions provide a chance to consumers for satisfying their buying desires.
For a long time people had to carry and keep lots of cash with them at all times. This was not a storable place in which they can keep it handy. After credit cards were introduced it helped many people out because of the many qualities it had. Credit cards are a great asset for people and are one of the great financial creations. Some people think that using credit cards have a disadvantage and are not a good idea. I however think that using credit cards is a good idea and advantageous for most people. These advantages include more benefits, a better way to structure money, and it’s safer for people to use.
As established by PCI DSS, our company needs to include different aspects to securely handle and store credit cards information. From the perspective of the Information Security Analyst we must to consider the following points:
A thief may be use them directly or to get their information (which is required in money exchange). In today’s technical intelligence it is also possible to get a clone of any credit card or debit card, which works like original and they can be give you a heavy financial loss. So be aware from credit cards fraud as they are like stolen your money from your pocket without your information.