Multi Application Smart Card Platforms and Operating Systems

Abstract

Although smart card technology has been available for many decades, it is only in the last few years that smart cards have become widely considered as one of the most common secure computing devices. They are encountered in a number of applications (e.g. secure wireless access in mobile networks, banking , identification) satisfying a diverse range of uses. One of the fundamental factors contributing towards the success of smart card technology is tamper resistance. As the underlying smart card processing power increases at a constant pace, more and more functionality becomes available. It was soon realised that in order to grasp the full benefits of the underlying hardware, parallel advances in the corresponding smart card operating systems would be necessary. This chapter provides an overview of the most widely utilised smart card operating systems or platforms that enable multiple applications to be securely managed and reside in the same smart card.