Lee Seng Chee wrote:
>
> Hello,
>
> Why interface smartcards to PCs when floppies or CD-ROMs, with Java
> enryption technology, can be used in place of smartcards. No need for
> additional hardware like smartcard readers, and the unit cost is lower?
>
> Or am I asking a stupid question?
I'm sure someone will give the answer shortly, but the important property
of a smartcard is that your private key is kept safe. On a floppy or CDROM,
anyone could read it, unless it was encrypted with another private key,
which would have to be stored somewhere else etc... and hence make a
duplicate. A smartcard cannot be duplicated, if it does not want to be.
One could argue that a password or passphrase could substitute for a
private key, but the combination of "something you know" and "something
you have" makes for a more secure solution than either separately.
Antranig.
---
> Visit the OpenCard web site at http://www.opencard.org/ for more
> information on OpenCard---binaries, source code, documents.
> This list is being archived at http://www.opencard.org/archive/opencard/
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