Technical staff at ITC Systems field a lot of questions in a typical day and one of the issues that seems to be front and centre with many of our customers right now is the question of whether to make the switch to chip-based smart cards.
Common sense says its bound to be a time-consuming and expensive project with few obvious benefits. Why bother?
The magnetic stripe card legacy.
Believe it or not, those versatile magnetic stripe cards have been around for two decades now. They are inexpensive to make, simple to program and easy to use. Theyve become the industry standard in every transactional environment where personal cards are used and theyre everywhere.
But heres the problem: magnetic cards have a very simple data storage system making them easy targets for identity thieves and system hackers. Its relatively easy to copy, or skim, the stored data found on a magnetic card and once thats done, all manner of other problems result. Whats more, system administrators today want to use stored value cards in more ways all the time but the relatively small amount of data that can be stored on a magnetic card limits their options. The very popularity and simplicity of magnetic cards have become liabilities.
The advancement of chip-based smart cards, contact and contactless
Enter the chip-based smart card. It was originally developed way back in the late 1970s for the telecommunications and transportation industries. The goal at that time was to load a secure purse onto a card and allow the values to be mechanically read and written with ease. This would permit either the purchase of telephone time or transportation tickets in an unattended point of sale (UPOS) environment.
Over the past 15 years, developments around the world have resulted in technological improvements to smart cards in both contact and contactless form.
All pertinent data is now stored on a microchip embedded in the smart card itself, and PIN-code protection means the unauthorized downloading or modification of stored data is virtually impossible. Hackers and fraudsters are locked out. In addition, the chip itself is a memory device that is capable of holding from 1k to 64k bits of data, which far exceeds the data contained on a magnetic stripe card. The advantage to users? Substantially more capability and versatility than could have ever been imagined even a decade ago.
Youll have noticed that major banking and credit card organizations have recently embraced the smart cards advantages to help prevent fraud and to simplify merchant experiences.
But is this right for you and your organization?
We invite you to Talk to an ITC Systems expert today to learn more about how you might leverage the switch from magnetic cards to smart cards in a way that maximizes the benefits to your organization. Our representatives live and breathe every scrap of information that might make a difference to our customers and were eager to share what we know.
