What is a smart card?

>>Hi. I'm Paul Foley.
Co-founder at Versatile Security.

So, what is a smart card?
A smart card is a plastic card

that looks like a typical credit card, but
contains an embedded micro processor.

Smart cards can be used by an enterprise
to provide identification and authentication

by providing what is known
as strong 2-factor authentication.

That is, something you have--a smart card-
-and something you know--a PIN--

to access the smart card.

With ever increasing cyber threats,
enterprises can use smart cards

to increase their security and reduce threats.
The smart card will bring strong 2-factor

authentication security to replace
the use of password-only authentication.

By using 2-factor authentication an
enterprise can decrease the probability

that a requester is presenting
false evidence of its identity.

Common uses for smart cards within an
enterprise include: Windows smart card logon,

secure VPN access, email signature
and email encryption, and disc encryption.

For an enterprise that uses smart
cards for strong authentication,

a digital certificate needs to
be issued to the smart card.

The digital certificate is
used to identify the user

and this infrastructure is called
public key infrastructure (PKI).

The user will use, for example, their digital
certificate on their smart card to perform

strong 2-factor Windows smart card logon.

A smart card has, at a minimum,
2 PINs: a user PIN and an admin PIN.

The admin PIN is required when a
user needs to unblock their user PIN.

If an individual knows the admin PIN, they can
easily reset the user PIN and impersonate the user.

A smart card management system
would protect the admin PIN

for each smart card that it manages,

ensuring that no malicious user will
ever be able to retrieve the admin PIN.

Many other functions are provided, such as:
certificate management and user PIN management.

Please check out the Versatile Security website

for further details on our innovative
smart card management solutions.