-Caveat Lector- from: http://www.aci.net/kalliste/ <A HREF="http://www.aci.net/kalliste/">The Home Page of J. Orlin Grabbe</A> ----- Smart Cards Standardized Smart Card Operating Systems? Hyping Multos and Smartcard for Windows With its embedded microprocessor, a smart card is, in effect, a computer the size of a credit card. And like all computers, it needs an operating system. Until recently, these operating systems have been proprietary, with different applications running under different operating systems. This means the operating system used by, say, a smart phone card, will be different to one used for storing health records. There are estimated to be between 80 and 100 proprietary smart card operating systems in use worldwide. But several multi-application smart card operating systems are being developed that are set to transform the smart card market. "Any industry based on proprietary operating systems doesn't make a lot of sense," says Michael Keegan, chief executive of Mondex International, a subsidiary of MasterCard. Multi-application smart cards are not new. But the new operating systems promise to change the way this type of card is produced. Traditionally, a smart card manufacturer has carried out the fabrication process and downloaded the smart card application and operating system before shipping the card to the issuer. Although this method offers a one-stop shop for smart card production, it also means that if the issuer wants to add or remove an application, a new smart card has to be made. But multi-application operating systems will allow several applications to be placed on a smart card at any time. "Application developers need not issue their own card, but could piggy-back on another organisation's card," says Duncan Brown, head of research at Ovum (North America), a technology and telecommunications research company. "Applications can be downloaded after the card has been issued to cardholders, which reduces the cost of updates and of adding new functionality to the existing card," he says. "The balance of power has shifted from the smart card manufacturers to smart card developers." "Imagine a retailer runs a loyalty programme for three months," says Nick Habgood, chief executive of Maosco, a smart card consortium. "This application could be loaded on to a smart card, via telephone or the internet, and be removed from the card at the end of the period." Another benefit is the reduction in cost, says Mr Habgood. "A Mondex [electronic cash] card used to cost around $7 to $8 (£4-£5) to produce and that's just for a single application. But a multi-application smart card could be made for around $4. If the cost is spread among several smart card issuers, then it only costs you $1 per user to issue a smart card." Several multi-application technologies are jostling for position in the market. One is JavaCard, produced by JavaSoft, a division of Sun Microsystems. Java is a programming language that allows programs to run on computers using different operating systems, and JavaCard employs the same concept. JavaCard sits between the smart card application and the card's operating system, allowing applications to run under different hardware systems. JavaCard is supported by several companies, including Visa, Bull, Toshiba and Motorola, and Visa has run a JavaCard trial in Singapore. But JavaCard has its critics. "It has promised more than it has delivered," says Mr Brown. "It's a specification rather than an operating system and different manufacturers have interpreted it in different ways. This means there's no guarantee that applications will run on different JavaCard products." Another problem is that applications operating under JavaCard run more slowly than when using the underlying operating system. JavaCard also requires more powerful smart cards than those in use today. Mr Brown believes it will be a year before JavaCard becomes a viable smart card system. A rival approach is Multos (multi-application operating system). This has been developed by Mondex, which has handed over the standard to Maosco, whose members include Gemplus, Hitachi, Siemens-Nixdorf and Motorola. Multos offers a high level of security. This feature is important, because card issuers need to be confident their applications cannot be accessed by another party sharing the same smart card. Multos' powerful security has led to various financial organisations supporting the standard, including Europay, American Express and MasterCard. This year Hitachi and Siemens shipped the first commercial samples of Multos cards, and more than 250 application developers have taken a Multos licence. Last October, however, Microsoft announced its Smart Card for Windows operating system. Its applications include access to corporate networks, electronic cash and online transactions, such as home shopping. The successor to the Windows 98 operating system, provisionally called Windows 2000, will include a smart card as standard. "When you start up Windows 2000, it will ask you to insert your smart card," says John Noakes, business manager for e-commerce at Microsoft UK. "Smart Card for Windows has a good chance of becoming the de facto standard smart card operating system for networks, including the internet," says Mr Brown. Mr Noakes says Microsoft envisages a so-called White Card, a blank smart card on which sits the Windows operating system. "It'll only cost around $1. You take the card home, put it into a smart card reader and download the applications you want," adds Mr Noakes. Many believe Multos and Smart Card for Windows will co-exist, with the former finding a niche in the financial sector. But it seems that even with the arrival of multi-application operating systems, the concept of a universal smart card is still not on the cards. The Financial Times, Feb. 22, 1999 Pre-Impeachment Rape Woman in Rape Claim Vents Fury at Clinton The "cold bastard" doesn't notice YEARS of pent-up fury against President Clinton were unleashed yesterday by Juanita Broaddrick, who claims that he raped her in 1978. Mrs Broaddrick, 56, said: "Bill Clinton is a cold bastard who might have been killed if he had not been governor of Arkansas." She said she feared that her husband might take revenge against Mr Clinton for what she claimed was a "horrible" attack on her in a Little Rock hotel bedroom. "If, as governor of Arkansas, he had not been so well protected, I shudder to think what my husband would have done or what would have happened," she said. Mrs Broaddrick said that Mr Clinton had long been "covering his tracks" about the incident. The President's lawyer, David Kendall, said the rape story was "absolutely false". But it is beginning to stir a post-impeachment storm. She seems to have nothing to gain from the allegations but embarrassment. She is not selling her story or writing a book. Chris Shays, a Connecticut Republican congressman who voted against removing Mr Clinton from office, said: "If this story is true, then I think the President ought to resign." * David Sapsted in New York writes: ABC Television's interview with Monica Lewinsky is to be screened in America on March 3. The following day, Channel 4 broadcasts its own talk with the former White House intern. Andrew Morton's book, Monica's Story, is expected to be published in America on either March 3 or 4. The London Telegraph, Feb. 22, 1999 Deflation Continues Brazil Moves Into Recession Those high real interest rates didn't help Brazil formally moved into recession at the end of last year as the high interest rate policy aimed at preventing a currency crisis caused the economy to show its worst annual record of economic growth since 1992. Gross domestic product fell 1.89 per cent in the fourth quarter compared with the same period the year before, the second consecutive quarter of negative growth. As a result, the economy grew by just 0.15 per cent in 1998, the worst result since the 0.54 per cent decline in 1992 and down from the 3.68 per cent growth of the year before. Interest rates were kept high throughout the fourth quarter in an attempt to beat back speculative pressures on the currency in the wake of the Russian debt default in August. However, the government was forced to let the currency float in January, prompting a devaluation of 38 per cent against the dollar by Friday's closing price of R$1.94. With interest rates currently 39 per cent, monetary policy is now being kept tight to reduce the inflationary impact of the devaluation. Economists are predicting a fall this year of between 3 and 6 per cent in GDP, although some believe the economy could start growing by the end of the year. According to Chip Brown, economist at Morgan Stanley Dean Witter in New York, the economy will shrink 7.5 per cent in the first quarter and 4 per cent over the year as a whole. However, the government is optimistic that the devaluation will allow exports to expand and imports to decline sharply. According to Sergio Amaral, the presidential spokesman, the government is forecasting a trade surplus this year of $6bn-$7bn, compared to a deficit of $6.4bn in 1998. The Financial Times, Feb. 22, 1999 ----- Aloha, He'Ping, Om, Shalom, Salaam. Em Hotep, Peace Be, Omnia Bona Bonis, All My Relations. Adieu, Adios, Aloha. Amen. Roads End Kris DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion and informational exchange list. Proselyzting propagandic screeds are not allowed. Substance—not soapboxing! These are sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory', with its many half-truths, misdirections and outright frauds is used politically by different groups with major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. That being said, CTRL gives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no credeence to Holocaust denial and nazi's need not apply. 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