Smart Card Basic
You can find a lot of relevant information on smart card in this web site
Smart Card Overview
A smart card, a type of chip card is a plastic card embedded with a computer chip that stores and transacts data between users. This data is associated with either value or information or both and is stored and processed within the card's chip, either a memory or microprocessor. The card data is transacted via a reader that is part of a computing system. Smart card-enhanced systems are in use today throughout several key applications, including healthcare, banking, entertainment and transportation. To various degrees, all applications can benefit from the added features and security that smart cards provide. According to Dataquest, the worldwide smart card market will grow to 6.8 Billion units and $11 Billion by 2006.
Applications
First introduced in Europe over a decade ago, smart cards debuted as a stored value tool for pay phones to reduce theft. As smart cards and other chip-based cards advanced, people found new ways to use them, including charge cards for credit purchases and for record keeping in place of paper.
In the U.S., consumers have been using chip cards for everything from visiting libraries to buying groceries to attending movies, firmly integrating them into our everyday lives. Several states have chip card programs in progress for government applications ranging from the Department of Motor Vehicles to Electronic Benefit Transfer (EBT). Many industries have implemented the power of smart cards into their products such as the new GSM digital cellular phones to TV-satellite decoders.
Why Smart Cards
Smart cards greatly improve the convenience and security of any transaction. They provide tamper-proof storage of user and account identity. Smart cards also provide vital components of system security for the exchange of data throughout virtually any type of network. They protect against a full range of security threats, from careless storage of user passwords to sophisticated system hacks. Multifunction cards can also serve as network system access and store value and other data. People worldwide are now using smart cards for a wide variety of daily tasks, these include:
Loyalty and Stored Value
A primary use of smart cards is stored value, particularly loyalty programs that track and incentivize repeat customers. Stored value is more convenient and safer than cash. For issuers, float is realized on unspent balances and residuals on balances that are never used.
For multi-chain retailers that administer loyalty programs across many different businesses and Point of sale systems, smart cards can centrally locate and track all data. The applications are numerous, from parking and laundry to gaming, as well as all retail and entertainment uses.
Securing Information and Physical Assets
In addition to information security, smart cards achieve greater physical security of services and equipment, because the card restricts access to all but the authorized user(s). E-mail and PCs are being locked-down with smart cards. Information and entertainment is being delivered via to the home or PC. Home delivery of service is encrypted and decrypted per subscriber access. Digital video broadcasts accept smart cards as electronic keys for protection. Smart cards can also act as keys to machine settings for sensitive laboratory equipment and dispensers for drugs, tools, library cards, health club equipment etc.
E-Commerce
Smart cards make it easy for consumers to securely store information and cash for purchasing. The advantages they offer consumers are:
The card can carry personal account, credit and buying preference information that can be accessed with a mouse click instead of filling out forms.
Cards can manage and control expenditures with automatic limits and reporting.
Internet loyalty programs can be deployed across multiple vendors with disparate POS systems and the card acts as a secure central depository for points or rewards.
Micro Payments - paying nominal costs without transaction fees associated with credit cards or for amounts too small for cash, like reprint charges.
Personal Finance
As banks enter competition in newly opened markets such as investment brokerages, they are securing transactions via smart cards at an increased rate. This means:
Smart cards increase trust through improved security. Two-Factor Authentication insures protection of data and value across the internet. Threats such as the "Man in the middle" and "Trojan Horses" that replay a user name and password are eliminated
This will improve customer service. Customers can use secure smart cards for fast, 24-hour electronic funds transfers over the internet
Costs are reduced: transactions that normally would require a bank employee's time and paperwork can be managed electronically by the customer with a smart card
Health Care
The explosion of health care data brings up new challenges to the efficiency of patient care and privacy safeguards. Smart cards solve both challenges with secure storage and distribution of everything from emergency data to benefits status.
Rapid identification of patients; improved treatment
A convenient way to carry data between systems or to sites without systems
Reduction of records maintenance costs
Network Security
Business to business Intranets and Virtual Private Networks "VPNs" are enhanced by the use of smart cards. Users can be authenticated and authorized to have access to specific information based on preset privileges. Additional applications range from secure email to electronic commerce.
Physical Access
Businesses and universities of all types need simple identity cards for all employees and students. Most of these people are also granted access to certain data, equipment and departments according to their status. Multifunction, microprocessor-based smart cards incorporate identity with access privileges and also store value for use in various locations, such as cafeterias and stores.
Smart Card Security
Smart cards provide computing and business systems the enormous benefit of portable and secure storage of data and value. At the same time, the integration of smart cards into your system introduces its own security management issues, as people access card data far and wide in a variety of applications.
The following is a basic discussion of system security and smart cards, designed to familiarize you with the terminology and concepts you need in order to start your security planning.
What Is Security?
Security is basically the protection of something valuable to ensure that it is not stolen, lost, or altered. The term "data security" governs an extremely wide range of applications and touches everyone's daily life. Concerns over data security are at an all-time high, due to the rapid advancement of technology into virtually every transaction, from parking meters to national defense.
Data is created, updated, exchanged and stored via networks. A network is any computing system where users are highly interactive and interdependent and by definition, not all in the same physical place. In any network, diversity abounds, certainly in terms of types of data, but also types of users. For that reason, a system of security is essential to maintain computing and network functions, keep sensitive data secret, or simply maintain worker safety. Any one company might provide an example of these multiple security concerns: Take, for instance, a pharmaceutical manufacturer:
Type Of Data
Security Concern
Type Of Access
Drug Formula
Basis of business income. Competitor spying
Highly selective list of executives
Accounting, Regulatory
Required by law
Relevant executives and departments
Personnel Files
Employee privacy
Relevant executives and departments
Employee ID
Non-employee access. Inaccurate payroll, benefits assignment
Relevant executives and departments
Facilities
Access authorization
Individuals per function and clearance such as customers, visitors, or vendors
Building safety, emergency response
All employees
Outside emergency response
What Is Information Security?
Information security is the application of measures to ensure the safety and privacy of data by managing it's storage and distribution. Information security has both technical and social implications. The first simply deals with the 'how' and 'how much' question of applying secure measures at a reasonable cost. The second grapples with issues of individual freedom, public concerns, legal standards and how the need for privacy intersects them. This discussion covers a range of options open to business managers, system planners and programmers that will contribute to your ultimate security strategy. The eventual choice rests with the system designer and issuer.
The Elements Of Data Security
In implementing a security system, all data networks deal with the following main elements:
Hardware, including servers, redundant mass storage devices, communication channels and lines, hardware tokens (smart cards) and remotely located devices (e.g., thin clients or Internet appliances) serving as interfaces between users and computers
Software, including operating systems, database management systems, communication and security application programs
Data, including databases containing customer - related information.
Personnel, to act as originators and/or users of the data; professional personnel, clerical staff, administrative personnel, and computer staff
The Mechanisms Of Data Security
Working with the above elements, an effective data security system works with the following key mechanisms to answer:
Has My Data Arrived Intact? (Data Integrity) This mechanism ensures that data was not lost or corrupted when it was sent to you
Is The Data Correct And Does It Come From The Right Person? (Authentication) This proves user or system identities
Can I Confirm Receipt Of The Data And Sender Identity Back To The Sender? (Non-Repudiation)
Can I Keep This Data Private? (Confidentiality) - Ensures only senders and receivers access the data. This is typically done by employing one or more encryption techniques to secure your data
Can I Safely Share This Data If I Choose? (Authorization and Delegation) You can set and manage access privileges for additional users and groups
Can I Verify The That The System Is Working? (Auditing and Logging) Provides a constant monitor and troubleshooting of security system function
Can I Actively Manage The System? (Management) Allows administration of your security system
Why this Blog ? News articles in the Wide World of Web, quite often disappear with time, when they are relocated as archives with a different url. Archives in this blog serve as a library for those who are interested in doing Research on Aadhaar Related Topics. Articles are published with details of original publication date and the url.
In 2009, I became extremely concerned with the concept of Unique Identity for various reasons. Connected with many like minded highly educated people who were all concerned.
On 18th May 2010, I started this Blog to capture anything and everything I came across on the topic. This blog with its million hits is a testament to my concerns about loss of privacy and fear of the ID being misused and possible Criminal activities it could lead to.
In 2017 the Supreme Court of India gave its verdict after one of the longest hearings on any issue. I did my bit and appealed to the Supreme Court Judges too through an On Line Petition.
In 2019 the Aadhaar Legislation has been revised and passed by the two houses of the Parliament of India making it Legal. I am no Legal Eagle so my Opinion carries no weight except with people opposed to the very concept.
In 2019, this Blog now just captures on a Daily Basis list of Articles Published on anything to do with Aadhaar as obtained from Daily Google Searches and nothing more. Cannot burn the midnight candle any longer.
"In Matters of Conscience, the Law of Majority has no place"- Mahatma Gandhi
Ram Krishnaswamy
Sydney, Australia.
Aadhaar
The UIDAI has taken two successive governments in India and the entire world for a ride. It identifies nothing. It is not unique. The entire UID data has never been verified and audited. The UID cannot be used for governance, financial databases or anything. It’s use is the biggest threat to national security since independence. – Anupam Saraph 2018
When I opposed Aadhaar in 2010 , I was called a BJP stooge. In 2016 I am still opposing Aadhaar for the same reasons and I am told I am a Congress die hard. No one wants to see why I oppose Aadhaar as it is too difficult. Plus Aadhaar is FREE so why not get one ? Ram Krishnaswamy
First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.-Mahatma Gandhi
In matters of conscience, the law of the majority has no place.Mahatma Gandhi
“The invasion of privacy is of no consequence because privacy is not a fundamental right and has no meaning under Article 21. The right to privacy is not a guaranteed under the constitution, because privacy is not a fundamental right.” Article 21 of the Indian constitution refers to the right to life and liberty -Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi
“There is merit in the complaints. You are unwittingly allowing snooping, harassment and commercial exploitation. The information about an individual obtained by the UIDAI while issuing an Aadhaar card shall not be used for any other purpose, save as above, except as may be directed by a court for the purpose of criminal investigation.”-A three judge bench headed by Justice J Chelameswar said in an interim order.
Legal scholar Usha Ramanathan describes UID as an inverse of sunshine laws like the Right to Information. While the RTI makes the state transparent to the citizen, the UID does the inverse: it makes the citizen transparent to the state, she says.
Good idea gone bad
I have written earlier that UID/Aadhaar was a poorly designed, unreliable and expensive solution to the really good idea of providing national identification for over a billion Indians. My petition contends that UID in its current form violates the right to privacy of a citizen, guaranteed under Article 21 of the Constitution. This is because sensitive biometric and demographic information of citizens are with enrolment agencies, registrars and sub-registrars who have no legal liability for any misuse of this data. This petition has opened up the larger discussion on privacy rights for Indians. The current Article 21 interpretation by the Supreme Court was done decades ago, before the advent of internet and today’s technology and all the new privacy challenges that have arisen as a consequence.
Rajeev Chandrasekhar, MP Rajya Sabha
“What is Aadhaar? There is enormous confusion. That Aadhaar will identify people who are entitled for subsidy. No. Aadhaar doesn’t determine who is eligible and who isn’t,” Jairam Ramesh
But Aadhaar has been mythologised during the previous government by its creators into some technology super force that will transform governance in a miraculous manner. I even read an article recently that compared Aadhaar to some revolution and quoted a 1930s historian, Will Durant.Rajeev Chandrasekhar, Rajya Sabha MP
“I know you will say that it is not mandatory. But, it is compulsorily mandatorily voluntary,” Jairam Ramesh, Rajya Saba April 2017.
August 24, 2017: The nine-judge Constitution Bench rules that right to privacy is “intrinsic to life and liberty”and is inherently protected under the various fundamental freedoms enshrined under Part III of the Indian Constitution
"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the World; indeed it's the only thing that ever has"
“Arguing that you don’t care about the right to privacy because you have nothing to hide is no different than saying you don’t care about free speech because you have nothing to say.” -Edward Snowden
In the Supreme Court, Meenakshi Arora, one of the senior counsel in the case, compared it to living under a general, perpetual, nation-wide criminal warrant.
Had never thought of it that way, but living in the Aadhaar universe is like living in a prison. All of us are treated like criminals with barely any rights or recourse and gatekeepers have absolute power on you and your life.
Announcing the launch of the # BreakAadhaarChainscampaign, culminating with events in multiple cities on 12th Jan. This is the last opportunity to make your voice heard before the Supreme Court hearings start on 17th Jan 2018. In collaboration with @no2uidand@rozi_roti.
UIDAI's security seems to be founded on four time tested pillars of security idiocy
1) Denial
2) Issue fiats and point finger
3) Shoot messenger
4) Bury head in sand.
God Save India
