Indonesian smart cards apparently not that smart<\/p>\n
By T. Sima Gunawan<\/p>\n
JAKARTA (JP): What do rich people have in their wallets or
\npurses? A lot of money, right? Wrong. They do not need to carry
\nmuch cash anymore because a credit card can take its place in
\nbusiness transactions.<\/p>\n
More and more people worldwide are using credit cards as they
\nprovide greater convenience. However, soon credit cards alone
\nwill not be enough.<\/p>\n
Two of the world's largest credit card companies, Mastercard
\nand Visa, are planning to develop global smart cards, starting
\nwith Australia. Visa will start issuing smart cards middle of
\nthis year, followed by Mastercard at the end of the year.<\/p>\n
A smart card will be embedded with a microchip, which will be
\nable to store a lot of information. More than a magnetic-strip
\ncredit card, it will function as a debit card as well. In
\naddition, it will serve as a portable bank account which allows
\nthe holder to deposit money on the card, which can be used to pay
\nsmall items now bought with cash.<\/p>\n
Compared to the plain credit cards, smart cards are obviously
\nmore secure.<\/p>\n
\"You can't duplicate smart cards,\" stressed Terry E. LeDell,
\nSenior Product Manager of DataCard, the world's leading plastic
\ncard supplier.<\/p>\n
Along with DataCard Vice President Woodrow J. Frost, he came
\nfrom their Minneapolis office last week to talk about the
\ntechnologies behind plastic cards. A number of both private and
\ngovernment institutions attended the two-session presentation
\norganized by the DataCard distributor in Indonesia, PT Bauma
\nSmarti Teknika.<\/p>\n
\"Credit card forgeries in the United States alone inflict $1.6
\nbillion a year in losses,\" LeDell told The Jakarta Post.<\/p>\n
Smart cards are not for financial institutions only. In the
\nUnited States, chips are installed in health care cards and smart
\ncards are issued to replace food stamps.<\/p>\n
\"You can get information from a smart card, or give it
\ninformation. For example, my medical record can be stored in my
\nhealth care card, so if I go to a doctor, they can read all of my
\npast illnesses and medicine,\" LeDell said, adding that the
\ninformation can be updated anytime.<\/p>\n
In the welfare program, the U.S. government has started using
\nsmart cards to prevent the abuse of food stamps. \"You can sell
\nfood stamps and use the money to buy liquor. But since the
\ngovernment put the benefit on chips, you have to go to a store
\nand buy food if you want to get the benefit. The cashier will
\nsubtract the food you purchase from the card,\" LeDell said.<\/p>\n
Educational institutions also use smart cards. The Florida
\nState University, for instance, has been using smart cards for
\nthree years.<\/p>\n
Everyone in the university has a card, which allows them to
\nuse it as a credit card or debit card. It also has a bar code to
\na lunch or dinner, as well as a magnetic stripe for access
\ncontrol, according to LeDell.<\/p>\n
The university is also able to trace the card holders and send
\nemergency messages.<\/p>\n
\"They can send the signal through the computer. So, when you
\nare trying to get through the door, there will be an emergency
\nmessage on the reader with the red light turned on. As you get
\nthe message, you can contact the operator and they will tell you
\nwhat has happened, whether your dog has died or whether you
\nshould call your Mom,\" LeDell explained.<\/p>\n
The cards provide greater security. For example, if someone
\ngets through the front door, the reader will automatically
\nregister it. If there is something missing in the locker room, it
\nwill be easier to investigate the case because everyone who's
\nbeen there is recorded.<\/p>\n
\"Many colleges in the U.S. are using this to transcribe the
\nschool records, the attendance and how much you pay for tuition.
\nWell, you can also put money in it to buy cokes or candy bars,\"
\nLeDell said.<\/p>\n
Not really smart<\/p>\n
What about Indonesia?<\/p>\n
There are at least three banks which have issued \"smart\"
\ncards. Bank Dharmala, Bank Surya Putra Perkasa and Bank Eksport
\nImport.<\/p>\n
Bank Eksport Import has EximSmart, which was introduced in
\n1991. It is like an account book which records the card holder's
\ntransaction with the bank. Also, it can be used as a debit card,
\nwhich is accepted in Pasar Raya Department Stores, Tomang Tol
\nDepartment Stores and Medika Loka Hospital.<\/p>\n
The other smart card is Procard, first issued by Bank Dharmala
\nin 1993. As a debit card, it is accepted by about 50 merchants in
\n150 outlets in the city. Bank Surya Putra Perkasa has recently
\njoined Bank Dharmala in the issuance of the cards. This will be
\nfollowed by two other private banks, Modern Bank and Bank Sewu.<\/p>\n
Procard holders can draw cash at an ATM. If they want to put
\nmoney on the cards, however, they should go to the bank.<\/p>\n
Well, you might be disappointed because as a smart card,
\nProcard is not really smart. But in a way, Procard is a little
\nmore advanced than several other bank cards, which can only be
\nused to withdraw cash. There is also a hope that as it gets
\nolder, Procard will become smarter.<\/p>\n
\"We have a plan to improve the cards, so that in the future
\ncard owners can put money on the card at an ATM,\" Inka, a Procard
\nmarketing officer, said.<\/p>\n
LeDell predicted that there will be a great increase in the
\nuse of smart cards, as well as hologram cards, radio frequency
\ncards and proximity cards, mainly for security reasons. Radio
\nfrequency cards and proximity cards do not need any physical
\ncontact with the readers. Proximity cards will be effective as
\nentry cards to a building where hundreds of people go in and out.<\/p>\n
Another sophisticated way to gain access through a door is by
\neye scanning.<\/p>\n
\"They scan the retina in the eye. The blood vessels are
\ndifferent for everybody, like a fingerprint, so they get a
\ndifferent pattern for different people,\" LeDell said.<\/p>\n
\"They are working with a red laser, looking at the pattern of
\nyour eye, that will become your ID,\" he added.<\/p>\n
He said this method is very accurate, but people do not use it
\na lot because they don't feel right having a laser scanning their
\neyes.<\/p>\n
Finger prints are also very accurate, but many people raise
\nobjections to the storing of fingerprints on data base. \"The
\nCivil Liberty Union in the United States is totally against
\nmaintaining finger prints on data base,\" LeDell told the Post.<\/p>\n
Hand geometry is less accurate than finger prints, as are
\nsignatures.<\/p>\n
\"If you make a signature, you create a pattern on how you sign
\nyour name. If, one day, you don't feel good and you don't sign
\nthe same way, you will be denied access,\" he said.<\/p>\n
Hand geometry cannot be totally accurate because when you gain
\na lot of weight, the geometry can be a little different.<\/p>\n
According to LeDell, voice is not accurate as an ID because
\nwhen people do not feel well, their voices might be different.<\/p>\n
Types<\/p>\n
In accordance with the development of technology, various
\ntypes of sophisticated cards are offered with more convenience
\nand security. Clearly, the cost is high.<\/p>\n
\"You can have this card for 25 cents,\" LeDell said, pointing
\nat a plain plastic company badge, \"but this smart card, with a
\nchip that can keep 8,000 bits of memory, costs $10 apiece.\"<\/p>\n
The access machines are available for hundreds of thousands of
\ndollar each.<\/p>\n
LeDell said DataCard has over 90 banks worldwide, including
\nBCA and Citibank Indonesia, using their machines to do photos on
\nID cards, and 40 customers who are doing driver's licenses,
\nhealth care cards, member cards, university ID cards and other
\nplastic cards for the government.<\/p>\n
\"The market for Indonesia is promising,\" he said.<\/p>\n
However, LeDell said DataCard did not expect an instant
\nresponse from potential buyers, especially the government.<\/p>\n
\"We just want to give the information that the technology is
\nout there,\" he said.<\/p>\n
High technology allows the issuance of secured plastic cards
\nwith various features such as security printing, security inks or
\noptical variable, according to DataCard vice president, Frost.<\/p>\n
An intricately interwoven pattern, like the one printed in
\ncurrency, is an example of security printing. There are also
\nmicro printing, difficult to detect with the unaided eye, rainbow
\nprinting, which allows one color to merge into another, and
\nlatent image, which appears only when viewed at a certain angle.<\/p>\n
A commonly used security ink is one which is only seen under
\nultraviolet light.<\/p>\n
An optically variable device can also be used to change the
\nappearance of an image when viewed at a different angle.<\/p>\n
\"When you rotate the card at 90 degrees, you will see a
\ncompletely different image,\" Frost said.<\/p>\n
A thorough consideration should be made to select which
\nsecurity features will be applied on the cards, depending on the
\nnecessity, he suggested. Periodic evaluations will also be
\nrequired, to assure security.<\/p>\n
\"There is no guarantee that a product which is secure today
\nwill be secure in the future,\" he said.<\/p>\n
Not only the customers, but plastic card producers need to
\nimprove their products because there is always somebody out there
\ntrying to break the security.<\/p>",
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