Smart cards are a normal part of daily life for us all, but what about smart tokens? You know, those little round ‘thingys’ that everyone keeps talking about….
A security/smart token (sometimes called an authentication token) is a small hardware device that the owner carries to authorise access to a network service. The device may be in the form of a smart card or may be embedded in a commonly used object such as a key fob.
Smart tokens often require a password in order to function. This provides the token some certainty that the person using it is the person who is supposed to be using it!
But… this isn’t always necessary – for some applications, entering a password each time the token is used is more trouble than it’s worth. In general, if a person can use the token to spend money or access sensitive data, it will have a password. The user enters the password on his keyboard, or directly into the token via a keypad. Even if the computer has been hacked to record passwords, that won’t allow anyone to break the system; they still have to get possession of the smart token! Clever huh?!
In theory, smart tokens offer the same technology as smart cards, but presented in a different form with some level of increased security. We have the solutions to dispense these tokens, encode them, and we can even manufacture and supply the tokens themselves.
They can also be manufactured with Mifare technology – The leading brand of contactless IC products!