THE SMART CARD

The invention of the microchip in the 1960s revolutionised the computer industry. Microchips are also used in thousands of other products, including smart cards. These look and function like the familiar magnetic-stripe credit cards, but they have a microchip embedded inside them that can store information. The smart card was the brainchild of two French inventors, Roland Moreno and Michel Ugon, who developed the technology in the mid-1970s. The first cards were tested in several French cities in the early 1980s and the technology was subsequently adopted by banks throughout Europe. Smart cards are now a part of everyday life in Europe, where they are used for a wide range of purposes, including paying for public transport, making small purchases over the counter, and banking by telephone. The European Union has adopted the technology as the standard for all its future credit cards. Smart cards are only just beginning to be introduced in the United States, where the older magnetic-stripe technology is still the norm. The new technology is considered to be much more secure than the magnetic-stripe card, which is vulnerable to fraud. The microchip embedded in the smart card can be programmed to allow the cardholder to access many different systems. One card can be used for various types of banking transactions, for example, and as a phone card. It can also serve as an electronic purse, storing a cash balance for small purchases and recording phone and ATM transactions. It can also be used as a security pass to give the cardholder access to restricted areas. The smart card…