A smart card, also known as a chip card or integrated circuit card, is a physical electronic authentication device used to control access to a resource. It is typically a plastic credit card-sized card with an embedded integrated circuit (IC) chip. Smart cards can be contact or contactless, and they can provide personal identification, authentication, data storage, and application processing. The chip on a smart card can be either a microcontroller or an embedded memory chip. Smart cards are designed to be tamper-resistant and use encryption to provide protection for in-memory information. They can be used for a variety of applications, including identification, financial, public transit, computer security, schools, and healthcare.
Smart cards can be used as credit or ATM cards, fuel cards, mobile phone SIMs, authorization cards for pay television, household utility pre-payment cards, and more. They are also used as tokens for multifactor authentication (MFA) . Smart card technology conforms to international standards (ISO/IEC 7816 and ISO/IEC 14443) and is available in a variety of form factors, including plastic cards, fobs, subscriber identity modules (SIMs) used in GSM mobile phones, and USB-based tokens.
