CDR: Re: VISA to smartcard the US

Kerry L. Bonin kerry at vscape.com
Wed Sep 13 13:07:20 PDT 2000


Take a look at Dallas Semiconductor's Crypto iButton family.  FIPS level 2
and 3 certified DSA/SHA services with a JVM in a large watch battery form
factor, under $50 for FOB and interface.  (Disclaimer - I don't work there,
I've just used their products for many years now and have designed them
into a dozen odd products.)  Many interesting places use these as personal
certificate storage to authenticate access.

At 02:18 AM 9/13/00 -0400, Ray Dillinger wrote:
>
>
>Hmmm.  These devices could be useful, even without using 
>them as credit cards.  I wonder if you could buy a batch 
>of them from the manufacturer with custom software installed? 
>
>It would sure be nice if I could make a physical key token 
>that would render my system completely useless if the key 
>were, say, in my wallet at work, and the computer found its 
>way to, say, the hands of someone carrying out an illegal 
>search and seizure.  
>
>likewise it would be nice to store PGP keys on, etc -- bits 
>of data that you want to maintain complete physical control 
>of at all times. 
>
>"Oppression is sometimes best fought with the tools that 
>the oppressors have built for their own use." 
>
>I want a PGPdisk you can boot from.
>
>				Bear
>
>
>On Tue, 12 Sep 2000, A. Melon wrote:
>
>>Sep 12, 2000 - 07:27 PM 
>>
>>            Visa USA to Launch Smart Card in
>>            the U.S. 
>>            The Associated Press
>>
>>            NEW YORK (AP) - After success with its smart card in
>>            Europe and Japan, Visa is aiming squarely at the U.S.
>>            market with an upgraded version that contains more
>>            memory. 
>>
>>            Over the next couple of weeks, Visa USA, the
>>            companys U.S. division, will be launching smart cards
>>            - microprocessors embedded in plastic -that will offer
>>            prepackaged services to be determined by its issuers. 
>>
>>            Customers will be able to download information from
>>            their computers via special card readers. Over the next
>>            year or so, they will be able to store airline tickets, for
>>            example, and eventually use the cards as keys to their
>>            cars and homes. 
>>
>>            The card, which has 32 kilobytes of memory, is
>>            different from Visas original version, which has mainly
>>            served as a "monetary value card," said Al Banisch,
>>            senior vice president of consumer credit products. 
>>
>>            The new card will be available free to Visas 350
>>            million cardholders. 
>>
>>
>
>
>
>






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