biometrics

[Scott Guthery]

>I'm unaware of any
>smart card system that has survived a serious assault. 

By serious I assume you mean practical and cost effective 
in practice not just theoretical hyperventilation.

The GSM SIM and the German Geldkarte have security
records that compare favorably to other technologies
as does the Mondex card.

(A test GSM authentication algorithm, COMP128, was attacked
but it is not used in any large GSM networks.  And it
was the algorithm not the SIM that was attacked.)

Taking (cost of effort to break) / (cost of device) as a
measure of practical security, smart cards do a fairly
good job of protecting their contents.

IMHO as always.

Cheers, Scott





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