Prototyping a Secure Multipurpose, Mobile Chip
A powerful, high-capacity chip currently under development has the potential to revolutionise daily life, doing away with many of the identity documents, credit cards and passwords people have to use each day.
(PRWEB) April 10, 2005 -- Due to end in June, the IST programme-funded
project SM-PAYSOC has so far created a working prototype of the chip packaged in
a smartcard, which in the future could also be incorporated into a USB token or
a SIM card.
It allows users to access services and carry out online
transactions wirelessly from a mobile phone or PDA, or from a desktop PC or
public card reader with fixed-line Internet access. User authentication
procedures employing Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) ensure the security of the
data on the chip, which could include personal identity information or credit
card and bank details.
“The SM-PAYSOC token is a secure personal
repository of information that you can plug in and use anywhere on multiple
platforms to obtain multiple services,” explains project coordinator Alberto
Bianchi at AMTEC-Selenia Communications in Italy. “The user is the owner of the
token and can use it without constraints, permitting high mobility and secure
access to information and services. Unlike most smartcards on the market today
which have 64KB or less memory, our token has 16-128MB of nonvolatile memory.”
The services it offers could be either in the private or public domain,
as trials due to be conducted in Spain and Italy later this month plan to
show.
“It could be used by citizens to pay taxes at their local council,
students could use it to register remotely for exams or a person could obtain a
digital prescription from a doctor and buy the medications at a pharmacy using
the chip,” Bianchi says. “We believe it is the first time a chip has been
designed for such a comprehensive array of applications.”
In the view of
the project partners’ the highest demand is in the banking sector, which will
probably be the first industry to use multi-service, multi-platform chips on a
wide scale.
“Banks want to be able to offer more services and to do so
with greater ease,” the coordinator notes. “In that sense banks and other
service providers benefit from increased efficiency.”
On the other hand,
end-users gain by having all their information in a single place.
“When
we questioned people about a device such as this, the response was
overwhelmingly positive, with many saying that they have too many cards to carry
around and too many passwords to remember,” Bianchi says. “The chip was
therefore designed from a user-centred approach.”
Please mention IST
Results as the source of this story and, if publishing online, please hyperlink
to: http://istresults.cordis.lu/
Contact: Tara Morris,
+32-2-2861985, e-mail protected from spam bots
# # #
Source : http://www.prweb.com/releases/2005/4/prweb226976.htm