UK retailers have to be smart card-compliant by the end of 2004 and consumers may end up footing the bill. All point-of-sale (POS) devices have to be integrated with a smart card reader which ensures better transaction security.
Credit card-size smart cards slot into a reader and can be part of two-factor authentication. There's plenty of technology that could augment or replace the password, from smart cards to password-generating tokens to mobile phone-based systems.
Bracknell Forest has been one of the leaders in developing smart cards for council services, and is the lead authority in the National Smart Card Project. Bracknell Forest has distributed 38,000 of its smart cards, named The Edge, to residents...
InfoCard holds payment authorisation and details in the same way that a wallet holds credit cards, according to the software maker. In addition, the first version will also support other authentication technologies, such as the x509 certificates...
When a doctor arrives at a new post, identity and pre-employment checking information such as health clearance, GMC registration status and criminal records data stored on the card can be verified through a central NHS database.
But that is far from the case now, with everything from the turnstiles, accessed using contactless smart card 'Club Cards', to the electronic point-of-sale units at more than 300 catering points all connected to the network.