DAVID POGUE on smart cards
I read this today and totally enjoy hearing about new advances in Technology. Smart cards will probably replace cash and printed money someday - so it is good to keep myself updated on such stuff.
An interview with Randy Vanderhoof, executive director of the Smart Card Alliance, a not-for-profit trade group that's dedicated to evangelizing the potential of smart cards.
My ultimate dream would be to carry one form of digital identity that I can use in many ways: as an payment card, to get my free double latte, or securely access my mobile phone, PDA, and computer, enter my locked home, start my car, shop online and bank online when it is convenient for me. I wouldn't have to remember a user name and password, because I use a finger or my voice to biometrically unlock my information. If someone gets the secret PIN, they can't use it without also having my digital identity device (a smart card), which can't be forged, copied, or altered.
Q: Sounds great. So what are the obstacles?
A: The technology exists today to do all of these things, but you would be hard pressed to find anyone in the United States using smart cards this way. In other countries, like Japan and Hong Kong, people can use their cell phones for most or all of these purposes. It's the business rules and legal barriers that are the biggest obstacles to overcome, and some cultural norms have to change as well, like the privacy advocates who don't trust any technology that touches their identities (especially if the government is somehow in the middle).
As with stores in a mall, combining multiple applications into one card means that someone has to be the landlord and others are the tenants. Decisions on who owns the card, who controls how applications are added or changed, who replaces all my different digital identifies if the card is lost or stolen, remain challenges to this ultimate end game.
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Q: I've read that it's possible to make small purchases just by waving your cellphone. Where do we stand with cellphones?
A: Cellphones are the next major technology leap for payments. We already see thousands of banks and web merchants offering mobile banking and e-commerce, which is usually working through the phone's built-in Web browser, with better screen technology on today's phones.
A new technology called Near Field Communications (NFC) is coming to mobile handsets. The technology in NFC-equipped handsets communicate wirelessly with other NFC-compatible devices, like Bluetooth does, but at very short distances--only a few inches. This means you control when and how you communicate, and can do so very securely.
NFC uses the same radio frequency as the contactless payments cards and point-of-sale devices in stores. So if I have a payment application downloaded to my phone, I can simply wave my cellphone at the payment terminal, transit turnstile, or vending machine, and use the phone like a contactless credit or debit card. Since we have millions of contactless cardholders and tens of thousands of retailers already equipped for contactless payment, these NFC phones will be ready to use nearly everywhere.
Now let me go a little further into the NFC future with you. Let's say you are walking past a movie theatre, and you see a poster outside for the newest movie now playing. If the poster is equipped with NFC, you can hold you phone up to the poster and download to your phone the movie trailer.
You go across the street to get a coffee, and while you're there, you bring up the Web site linked at the bottom of the movie trailer you downloaded. You use your cellphone to buy a ticket, which gets stored inside your phone. Ten minutes before showtime, you walk past the line and into the theatre, touch your phone to the ticket redemption reader, and pass along your ticket wirelessly. As you head to the movie room, you stop by the snack stand to get some popcorn, and pay with your bank card by touching your NFC phone to the register. You are set for the evening!
Q: Are there security issues with any of these initiatives?
A: Despite what some researchers and media outlets want you to believe, these smart card products are very safe. The mobile handset manufacturers and operators are working on the standards that will make the cellphones even more secure than they are now, knowing that as people start using them for more than just talking and texting, they need to build consumer confidence.
That said, they are only as safe as the person wants them to be. You can put all the locks and safety precautions possible into these devices, but people can still choose to disable them or not protect their data.
interesting stuff ma'am.
Posted by: Drew | Saturday, July 05, 2008 at 03:57 PM