Smart Card-Based Solutions from Mozcom
October 18, 2004

The smart card, a plastic card with an embedded microprocessor silicon chip, can be found in use around the world. Vertical applications are in wide use for industries like transportation, telecommunication, healthcare, government, banking, manufacturing and retail.

Smart card applications include keeping track of Loyalty points, stored value debit cards or electronic purses, secure identification system, access entry security, and many more.

"Smart card technology is an integral component of e-commerce solutions, " said Dick Chiang, CTO/COO of Mozcom. "Because you can store a large amount of off-line data into it securely, it paves the way for off-line applications or those where it is impractical to have an always-on IP connection. Examples may include your personal medical history stored on the card's chip so that in case of an emergency, hospitals can pull out the information from the card, without needing to connect to some central database first. Financial transactions also benefit with using debit cards because the value is stored right on the card. There is no more need to set up an infrastructure to provide real-time verification unlike with credit cards."

Smart cards can be integrated with Point-of-Sale applications for debit payments and loyalty points tracking. Together with fingerprint scanning technology, it can provide a secure identification system that can be used in numerous application. "Instead of storing fingerprint templates on a central online database, you can store it right on the card, " Chiang adds. "Banks can perform customer identification and verification at any of their branches by just matching your fingerprint with the template stored on the card. There is even no need to connect the bank branches to a central fingerprint database"

Mozcom carries an affordable line of USB-based smart card readers that complies with PC/SC, EMV Level 1 and MS WHQL standards. Popular ISO-compliant memory cards and full microprocessor cards are supported. Contactless, contact-based and simple balance readers are available.

For companies who wants to deploy smart card-based applications without the trouble of in-house development, Mozcom can customize a solution. Visit http://www.mozcom.com/netsolutions for details.