Smart cards and their uses

Smart cards are pocket sized cards with integrated circuits on them. They may generally contain volatile memory or microprocessor components. In large scale industries and organisations, smart cards can provide high security authentication. The card is generally made of plastic and has external metallic strips for contact interface.

A typical Smart card may have the size of a credit card. It can have different types of functionality according to its use. For instance, if the card is used for a security purpose, it may have a secure cryptographic microprocessor for authentication. Additionally, a smart card may also have the functionality to interact with atm machines or other vending machines.

Smart cards can provide identification, authentication, data storage and application processing capabilities. There are other types of smart cards that do not require contact. These smart cards function through radio signals.

Why Should We Use Smartcards?

Windows 7 and other 3rd party softwares also use Smart cards for a variety of reasons including: authentication, access control, and for single sign-on for many different systems.

Most of the Smartcards don't allow the private key to be exported and it is difficult to remove. These products are often used for single sign-on. Single sign-on means that one sign-on is used for many independent systems like using your smartcard in logging on to your building, in Windows and in Unix systems.

One problem with these types of cards is when you let your friends or family use it making them access to your system without your approval but this can be avoided because of Multi Factor Authentication used by Windows 7. Multi Factor Authentication means having two or more systems are for authentication.