Smart Cards and Access Control - A Look Into the Not Too Distant Future

Highly popular in Europe and Asia, smart cards are making a strong impact in America.

Originally requiring contact with the reader in order to transfer information, manufacturers have begun building proximity, non-contact type cards that transfer bi-directional data utilizing RFID technology.

By encoding the cards and the readers with 64-bit encrypted "keys", manufacturers are able to provide highly secure credentials for access and simultaneously open up a whole new world of possible applications for proximity cards.

The data chips on smart cards can be segregated into separate application areas. Some manufactures provide as many as 16-different application areas. Each application area can be provided with its own unique 64-bit "key" so that only specific readers can access the information in that area.

In other words, you can have a reader in the library that has the 64-bit key to application area # 4 where the card stores all of your library information including which books you have checked out and not returned. A reader in the cafeteria has the 64-bit key to application area # 6 which debits money from your account for food purchases. The reader on the student housing building has the 64-bit key to application area # 1 where your card access level information is stored which grants you access into the dormitory.

With the advances in smart card technology, manufacturers are working on stand alone readers and locksets that are essentially "off-line" but they will still be able to integrate with P.C. based electronic access control systems.

The stand alone ?smart? locks will incorporate smart card readers with the ability to write the transaction back to the smart card. A person could visit hundreds of the "off-line" readers and when he reads his card at an "on-line" reader, the stored transactions would be downloaded to the database. If a person is fired, or taken out of the database for any reason, the "on-line" system can write the necessary information deleting the card, to each card that it reads. In this way, the information is transferred to the "off-line" readers telling them to delete the access privileges of the card.

Theoretically, this will allow large users of access control systems to customize their solutions and provide a mix of on-line and off-line readers that can be centrally managed while taking advantage of their existing communication infrastructure.

Another popular feature of smart cards is the ability to store biometric access control templates which allows faster response from biometric authentication readers. This innovative approach to biometric technology allows you to carry around your biometric template with you, rather than having it stored on the computer or the reader itself.

Because the template comparison becomes a one to one versus a one to many, it frees up valuable processor time and hard drive storage space, which allows the new bread of biometric readers to work very quickly.

Very soon, when you use your credit card at a point of sale, you might have to present your finger to a biometric reader to verify your identity. Not long after that, even internet transactions will be authenticated using some form of smart cards and biometric identification.

Get ready America, as all of these transactions are sure to use some type of Smart Card Technology!

Roy Stephenson is a Security Consultant with over 21 Years Experience Designing and Installing High End Integrated Security Systems. He is currently the VP of Marketing at http://www.Security-Kits.Com