Smart Card Interface – An overview

The “Smart Card Interface” business component provides smart card interfacing functionality to application business components. It can be used to centrally manage user enrollment, card issue and administration in a smart card-based system. The “Smart Card Interface” business component is primarily used to provide authentication based on electronic signature capability. But it can also be effectively used to manage multiple on-card applications such as secure logon to networks, email signing, E-Purse and employee access control.

Typically, business process tasks such as purchase order approval, work reporting task sign-off, change approval etc., require a person to authorize the transaction. This can be done electronically by using the smart card-based identification and authentication procedure, which validates the identity of the signatory. This process is referred to as Electronic Signature.

The electronic signature process is implemented by providing the smart card interface to the activity or task of the business component. The completion of a particular task is linked to the successful authentication of the user. The user is issued a smart card in which the user’s identity and authentication code (PIN) is stored. When the user needs to sign a transaction electronically, the user inserts the smart card into the smart card reader connected to the client computer, and enters the authentication (PIN) code. The system verifies whether the specified user ID and authentication code matches with the code stored in the card; and then allows the transaction to be completed. If the authentication code does not match, the system stops the transaction from being completed. Since the smart card is possessed by the user and the secret authentication code is known only to the user, this authentication is considered equivalent to the user electronically signing the transaction.

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