On the potential of high density smart cards

It is generally accepted that we live in a time of rapid change. Many advances are due to the introduction of new technologies that not only bring new opportunities but also can have a profound effect on human behaviours. Technology is always advancing steadily, but every so often there is evidence of a momentous leap forward. In fact this report is produced courtesy of a laptop, mobile phone and the Internet, i.e. powerful technologies that we regard as essential to modern life yet would have been considered science fiction only 30 years earlier. This “information technology” has empowered individuals like never before, however, it is indiscriminate and works just as well for those with good or bad intentions. Therefore, to safeguard the good from the bad, the field of Information Security was born. Information Security has been steadily evolving and has developed special technologies of its own to use in the fight to keep systems, information and individuals secure. One of these is the Smart Card (SC) that has proven itself to be tamper-resistant security token that can be deployed to end-users to secure systems and protocols. The cards have been very successful and have evolved steadily to a surprising level of sophistication; however, we may be just at the point when the smart card makes a momentous and assumption-shaking leap forward. The reason for this view arises because Smart Card vendors now have pre-production prototypes of High Density Smart Cards (that we will refer to as HDSCs) aimed initially at the mobile communications market, which could change our perception of security tokens and the associated system architectures and processes. This paper explores this possibility by first reviewing the current roles and limitations of conventional smart cards and then comparing with the HDSC. Finally, some thoughts will be presented on the business reality of introducing HDSCs.