Chipcard Reader: Another security measure for your data

By Zatni Arbi

JAKARTA (JP): First of all, some of you out there have been asking for my E-mail address. You have requested a much simpler way to share information with me. Okay.

I truly appreciate your interest in my column and I am sure you will send me a lot of useful information and tips that I can share with other readers. So, to show you my appreciation, I will reveal my E-mail address. It is: zatni@myself.com.

No. That is the correct E-mail address. There are no typos.

However, I'd like to remind you that there is one question I am not going to answer. That is: "How in the world did you get such a cool address?"

On the Cards

Cool E-mail addresses aside, let's talk about cards. You all know a lot about cards. In the past, we have all played cards to kill time. In Las Vegas, in addition to killing time, cards are used to test your luck. Usually you end up broke but it is a lot of fun.

However, as the world becomes more and more digitally equipped, your life is also becoming more and more dependent on different kinds of cards. Some of these other cards may contain digital data but they are, nevertheless, all the same. There are credit cards, debit cards, charge cards, ATM cards, discount cards, not to mention ID cards, driving licenses, golf club membership cards and the ubiquitous business cards.

You have one charge card for each gas station where you go for a fill-up. You have one card for each of the supermarkets where you buy your weekly supplies. Soon even your money will come in a so-called smart card.

The smart card has been widely predicted to become your electronic purse in the near future. If you need money, all you have to do is go to your bank and get your smart cards "charged". Later, when you make purchases at Sogo or Makro or Gucci the sales clerks will simply transfer the amount from your smart cards to their stores' accounts. You'll have to recharge these cards again when the purchasing power becomes low.

Well, of course, it may not be entirely necessary for you to go to the bank to get a fresh supply of digital wampum. You can perhaps download it from your bank right into your smart cards with the help of your PC. That will help a lot.

You can just imagine the embarrassment of hearing the teller say that you do not have enough in your accounts to recharge your smart card. You hope that her voice was not loud enough for the people behind you, or the people at the next counter, to hear.

At home you will be able to get exactly the same information in the absence of other human beings. You may feel depressed afterwards but at least you avoid the embarrassment.

In addition to keeping track of your buying capacity, smart cards will also store other important personal data. It sounds so interesting but at the same time it is also very frightening, don't you think?

Even though our wallets are already bulging with all sorts of cards, these are not the only cards that we will have to carry with us as we leave for work each morning. If you had a chance to visit the recent Networks Indonesia 97 exhibition, you might have seen another type of card for your computer: the chipcard.

I first learned about the chipcard -- some people write it as two separate words "chip card" -- when I visited Siemens Nixdorf (SNI) booth in one of those big computer exhibitions at the Jakarta Convention Center early last year. Until the recent Networks Indonesia 97, I thought SNI was still the only PC vendor to offer this feature on their client PCs and workstations.

Not just a key

A chipcard stores data about its owner. Well, that much is easily understood. In addition to basic data, the card also tells the computer how much access the machine -- or the network it is connected to -- should allow the user to have. It tells the computer which subdirectories or servers are off limits to the owner of the chipcard. This is a good protection mechanism and it ensures that only authorized staff members can access sensitive data.

Imagine yourself as the owner of a company that collects, manages and processes a huge amount of sensitive data. When your staff come to the office, each worker has to insert his or her card into the chipcard reader at the entrance door to gain entrance to the premises. That is security at its lowest level.

Take the example of a female information worker who spends her time sitting in front of a computer. After making it past the security doors she heads toward her cubicle. The only way she can turn on her machine, though, is to insert her chipcard into the chipcard reader. When she does this the computer will instantly turn itself on. She still needs to type in her password, since it can always happen that somebody steals the card and uses it to steal valuable data.

The chipcard, among others, is offered in an SNI product, specifically designed for the network computer (NC), called the Scenic Pro Net S. The chipcard reader and NC combination provide a good example of how a chipcard reader will be able to maximize data security by controlling access. Tellers in a bank, for example, do not need a fully fledged PC. All they need is an NC, which is much cheaper to buy and maintain. With the chipcard, tellers can work in shifts without having to worry about data integrity and security. They just leave the cards in the slots for as long as they work. When they are done for the day, they just pull out the card and the computer will shut down automatically. This will also allow tellers to work on any NC and the chipcard will allow the system administrator to keep track of who is working where and doing what.

Data scrambling

SNI also offers the chipcard with its personal workstation, the Celsius. Another significant benefit that comes with this computer is the encryption of sensitive data in the hard disks. Only staff members with the right level of authority can read what is stored in a scrambled subdirectory or an entire hard disk, for example.

So, if the workstation ever gets stolen the thieves will never be able to access the information in the hard disk. They may try taking out the hard disk and putting it on another system, but the data will remain inaccessible because it requires the right chipcard in the slot.

Other functions

It would also be nice if we could enter one of those Internet cafes or Internet centers (such as the one you can find at Singapore's Changi Airport), insert our chipcard into the computer's reader and have an instant connection to the Internet without having to manually change the parameters.

How did I think of this? Well, recently in Denpasar, Bali, a friend used my notebook computer to open his E-mail. After that I was not able to connect to my ISP because he had changed many of the parameters. I figure an Internet chipcard will help us do away with all these hassles.