Smart Card Manufacturers in Canada

eToken PRO smart card

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Smart cards look exactly like credit cards, but hidden beneath the surface is something completely different. These cards contain embedded microprocessors beneath gold contact pads that appear to serve the same purpose as the usual magnetic stripes on the backs of credit cards.

This microprocessor is an extra level of security that other credit cards simply don’t have. The card can literally communicate to the host computer like a compact disk would with a CD player. This allows the data to be easily accessed, updated, or deleted with the proper technology.

Smart cards are quite popular in Europe and have become widely-used in Canada. The country has even implemented this technology into loyalty card and gift certificate programs. Around the world, more than one hundred countries have swapped out coin-operated pay phones for phones that use smart cards.

Canada has become a major manufacturing center for smart card technology. Some of the leading manufacturers are ABnote North America, Allcard Limited, Giesecke & Devrient, Imprimerie Graphica, and Quatro Card Technology. To look up any of these smart card manufacturers in Canada, Canada 411 is your best source.

With smart cards being used to pay for items in vending machines, to authenticate users on personal computers, and increase banking security, the future for this technology is incredibly bright.

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How to Make Your Smart Cards Secure

Scans of different types of contact pads on Sm...

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Smart cards are quite secure, although there are always some dangers as crackers develop ways to extract data. While they are secure, there are some things to watch for and do to make your smart cards safer. As it contains very sensitive data, you would do well to follow through and learn more about this topic.

You should be aware that smart cards contain a microprocessor that stores and processes information. As opposed to data in the magnetic stripe of a credit card, smart cards require a special reader. From the financial industry to cutting edge cell phones such as the Galaxy S, you’ve likely come across a smart card or two, whether you know it or not.

In order to protect yourself, you should make sure that you make purchases that are secured, as your information could be at risk either locally or where it is being sent, of course. Thus, for instance, when you buy apps or a program, ensure that it is from the platform’s marketplace (as opposed to an unsecured website).

You must also be extremely careful with your smart card. Don’t take it out of your device or allow someone to use it in any way. If the smart card is lost or stolen, take action immediately with the company that issued it.

Having knowledge of smart cards and what to do in certain scenarios can ensure your safety. Thankfully smart cards are rather secure devices, and will continue to evolve and protect sensitive data.

 

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The Popular Smart Card

What Is a Smart Card?

A smart card resembles a credit card and the technology is in several different devices. Unlike most cards used in the United Sates, a smart card contains an embedded microprocessor rather than a magnetic strip. Normal magnetic strips can easily be tampered with, making it easy to change and delete information, as well as provide an easy way to steal identities. Smart cards protect information as well as personal identities.

What are Smart Cards Used for?

Smart cards are widely used in Europe, but they have become increasingly popular in the United States. Originally developed to reduce theft while using payphones, they are frequently used for everything from checking out books from the library to making transactions. Smart cards can be used for electronic cash, banking, healthcare, and more. They can be used in the form of a prepaid card, credit card, government identification, computer security systems, and key cards, just to name a few. Smart card technology has been used in cell phones, TV-satellite decoders, and many other places.

Benefits of Smart Cards

Smart cards are more reliable in protecting your identity than magnetic strips or bar codes are because they are much more difficult to tamper with. They restrict access only to authorized users. Passwords, identities, and other data are harder to hack into. Because the cost to reset passwords and other information is so high, smart cards can be a cost-effective solution. If you’re worried about your security, you may want to replace your magnetic strip cards with a smart card.

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Smart Credit Cards

Credit cards 

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Smart card credit cards are continuing to become more and more popular. Smart card credit cards contain an electronic microchip which stores information. Smart credit cards are designed to help people to make checking out faster. Since smart credit cards can hold extra data there should be less need for store merchants to ask to see drivers licenses and other forms of identification.

Some retail stores are even starting to install new types of credit card machines where smart card users can simply wave their credit card in front of the machine to pay for a purchase. There is no swiping or signing. Some consumers love this new technology while others are still a little uncomfortable with the change.

Smart cards can also eliminate the need for multiple cards. In the past, a consumer may have needed to carry a plastic store membership card to gain points and the store credit card to pay. Due to smart card technology, consumers at certain stores can ditch the membership card and all purchases and points will be recorded on the same card that they are using to pay for their items.

Some smart cards will also give users the choice of paying for a purchase with money from their bank account or a line of credit without having to change cards. This creates a debit/credit card combo. While this reduces wallet clutter, some consumers are scared about security. If card fraud was to occur, the account thief would now have access to both the consumer’s line of credit and the consumer’s bank account.

 

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Overview of an Smart Card in Europe

In Europe, paying for something with a credit card might mean tapping the card on a reader. Transferring health records might not require bulky files, but a small card. Smart card technology is much more popular in Europe than in the United States. Europeans use smart card technology for identification purposes, banking applications, health care uses and for mobile phones, just to name a few areas.

A smart card looks much like a typical credit card but is completely different on the inside. It has a chip that’s an embedded microprocessor. The processor is found under a gold contact pad on one side of the card. This microprocessor is used instead of the magnetic strip to transfer information from the card. But, the chips contain much more information than a typical credit card.

In Europe, smart cards are so common that every German citizen carries one for a universal health care card. Smart cards have been in use in Europe for over a decade. The reason for the popularity in Europe is that the typical magnetic strip technology in the United States is something that can easily be hacked and used for unlawful reasons. In the United States, computer technology developed to protect the readers, but this technology never developed in Europe as widely. Europeans embraced the smart card technology.

Some of the specific uses of smart cards in Europe include: government identification, satellite television, banking, loyalty cards (like frequent shopper’s cards), wireless systems and of course credit cards.

Europeans embraced smart card technology where it’s wide spread to this day. The technology has been around more than a decade and is starting to spread to the United States. Europeans have used smart cards in credit cards and other cards for years. The cards allow information to be transferred securely and quickly.

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Different Types of Smart Cards

Smart cards allow information to be shared quickly, easily and securely. The portable storage method is a card made from plastic and usually the size of a credit card with an embedded microprocessor inside. There are two main types of smart cards out there, both are different in the way the information is shared. These two types are contact cards and contactless cards.

These two types are also called chip cards because the microprocessor is covered in many panels of gold foil and looks like a small chip on the card. These cards are sometimes included on the plastic card the size of a credit card, but these smart cards can also be much smaller like the SIM cards found in cell phones, particularly in Europe.

Contactless cards use a radio frequency between the reader and the card to share information. This means the cards only have to be in proximity of the reader to complete transactions. An example of this type of card is an entry card carried by users to get into a building that is simply swiped in front of a reader for a user to gain access to the building.

Contact cards are the most common type of smart cards. They too have the foil covered chip. They work because electrical contacts connect when the card is inserted into a reader like when an ATM card is put in an ATM machine. Contact cards are found in many applications, like in credit cards, although most credit cards in the United States do not use this type of technology. United States credit cards usually use magnetic stripe technology.

Smart cards are an easy way to share information and allow users to carry a great deal of secure date in a pocket or wallet. There are more than one type of smart card.

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The Technology Behind Smart Cards

Smart cards are embedded microprocessors that can handle complex tasks and share information almost instantly. But, how exactly do they work?

A smart card is a computer chip so tiny it fits inside of a plastic credit card. It’s a pocket sized cord with embedded integrated circuits. These smart cards are used in everything from financial transactions–like credit cards–to mobile phones. In Europe, smart cards are used much more, particularly in mobile phones.

The cards are usually made from plastic. The size of a smart card is usually the same as a credit card, or close to the size of a credit card. The microprocessor part of the card is found under a gold foiling that rests on the outside of the card.

Smart cards are tamper resistant. These smart cards can share information with a card reader like that found in an ATM or credit card machine. But, the cards aren’t usually swiped. They’re either tapped on the reader so that the information is read simply from being in close proximity or the cards or put in the reader and read by contact with the card.

The technology behind smart cards has actually been around since the 1960s but the chips were much larger. In the 1980s, a German scientist created a card for using to pay for a call on a pay phone. The cards weren’t widely used and received. The technology wasn’t really used much until the 1990s when cell phones in Europe developed using the smart card technology with a card called a SIM card. With the popularity of the cell phone in Europe on the rise, the smart cards too became much more popular.

In fact, every German citizen has a smart card. The German health care card is a smart card that tracks health care coverage for Germans.

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Types of Smart Cards

Smart cards are cards that contain a microprocessor for storing and transferring data. The cards come in different types and can be read in different ways. Smart cards either contact cards or contact less cards, this describes the way the data from a card is read.

Contact cards have a contact area on the card made of gold foil usually about a square centimeter in size. The gold foil is separated into several different pads. When inserted into a reader like an ATM, the gold pads transfer information through electrical connectivity. The cards do not contain batteries for these transactions. All power is provided through the reader. The readers act as a medium between the card and the host, which is a computer or phone, like in a phone SIM card.

The second type of smart card is a contactless smart card. These cards do not make contact with the reader and do not contain the gold foiled pad. These cards are powered through RF induction technology. To communicate and transfer data, the cards only have to be in proximity of the antenna. These cards are used for quick and hands free transactions. Some credit cards have used this technology for cards that only have to be tapped or waved in front of an antenna for transactions, but they caused problems when a card in a pocket or purse came within range of the antenna and cards were inadvertently swiped and charged for purchases not made.

One big use of contactless cards is public transportation. The cards are quick and easy to keep lines of commuters flowing. The cards swipe as riders walk near a reader and lines aren’t held up by people swiping cards through a reader.

Smart cards are usually either contact cards or contactless, but some cards are a hybrid that can act as both.

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Basics of Smart Card Technology

Smart cards are increasing in popularity. The cards have been used regularly in Europe since the 1990s, but just recently started being seen more in the United States. The cards protect data inside of a card.

A smart card contains an embedded microprocessor that not only contains information, but also actively protects that information through encryption techniques. The smart cards are usually about the size of a credit card and made from plastic. The chip part of the card is covered in gold foil on the outside of the card.

The cards can be read in one of two ways, either through direct contact or through proximity readers. A proximity reader can read information from a smart card that just comes within a certain distance of the reader. The card is sometimes just tapped on the machine. Readers work similarly to swiping a credit card. The reader needs direct contact with the card to transfer information.

The smart cards have been used in Europe for mobile phones for years. The smart cards in mobile cards are called “SIM” cards and include the mobile phone number and account information. This allows users to add funds as they go, and also adds a user to easily switch phones and keep the same number.

Besides being used for mobile phones, smart cards have several other applications. The cards are used in the financial world for banking as ATM cards and credit cards. The cards are in use as identification cards in some parts of the world as well. For example, in Germany, users carry a smart card as the primary health care coverage card. The cards can contain a good deal of information in a tiny card. So much information that the card can contain an entire medical file.

Smart card technology allows for the transmission of data from a card to a reader in a protected manner.

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Overview of a Smart Card

A user walks up and taps a card in front of a small reader and the clerk waves them on. Smart card technology changes the way credit and debit cards are used. This type of technology contains a small embedded processor that holds a user’s account information. These cards come in two types: contact and contactless. The contact cards don’t have to be swiped, but information is exchanged by proximity.

Smart cards have been popular in Europe since the 1990s. The technology behind the cards was invented in the 1960s. In the 1980s, the cards were used to some degree to pay for pay phone calls, but it wasn’t until mobile phones became popular that the use of these cards became common place. In Europe, and with some American carriers, phones contain a smart card called a SIM card. The card contains the phone number and account information so if a user wants to switch phones, all he has to do is switch the SIM cards.

Smart cards aren’t just for mobile phones, they have many other applications as well. The cards are secure and encrypted making them a safe option. The cards are used for banking as well in the form of ATM, debit and credit cards.

Smart cards are also used for identification cards. A users information is loaded on the card and can be read to transfer any needed information. Smart cards are also popular in health care. In health care, smart cards are used for identification like in ID badges and also used to hold patient medical chart records. Smart card technology allows a lot of information to be contained on a tiny chip making this popular.

Smart cards are another way for users to easily and quickly share information to pay for purchases, confirm identity or to work mobile phones.

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