Old News About Smart Cards
With Smart cards remaining the most efficient and cost-effective product to allow access to digital information and electronic transactions while protecting the privacy and security of the owner. The media has highlighted in dramatic fashion the risk attached to smart cards and their miss-uses.
The media has used words like Fraudulent, Ethical and Experimental to highlight the reason why there has been break’s in security shields the true fact is that their will always be someone who will try to break security shields and on occasions will succeed.
As with any industry, security standards do not stand still, and the smart card industry is no exception. The industry has proven, over many years and with broad uses, to offer the strongest security at the most competitive price.
Two recent articles focusing on attacks on smart cards was WSJE on the 7th May 02 which rehashed fears for SIM’s that use algorithms which are considered outdated by the industry since The GSM Association recommended that operators to stop using them.
The WSJE article states, "…Its impact on consumers is expected to be limited." The article also points out that "IBM has an interest sounding the alarm. It developed technology to protect against the kind of hacker attack it is outlining and will offer to license that to cell phone makers."
The second article, which appeared on the 13th, May 02 in the New York Times, which give an account of research which included quotes from researchers which states that the vulnerability may pose a big problem for the industry and that the industry needed to add to increase the security of smart cards.
The true fact behind these articles is that the latest smart cards are protected against attack while earlier Smart Cards may prove to be more vulnerable, this goes to show that scare tactic which could damage the consumer confidence in the smart card industry will not work.
