Essay On Smart Cards

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Data security is a big concern for consumers and businesses alike. We have talked about data security in class, as it is a major concern and social issue. With more and more people using debit and credit cards to complete transactions, both online and at the store, both consumers and businesses are searching for ways to keep this data secure. One of the largest and most recent data breaches that comes to mind is the Target data breach that happened last November and December. Yang and Jayakumar, in their article in The Washington Posts (2014), stated that up to forty million customers’ card information had been stolen.
One way to help keep credit and debit card information secure is through the use of smart cards, specifically EMV cards with microchip technology versus the magnetic stripe. In this paper we will discuss what smart cards are and how they work, how they increase security, and how they differ from our current magnetic stripe cards.
What are smart cards?
Before diving into the smart card technology and security I want to first address the question of what smart cards are. According to CardLogix Corporation (2010) “A smartcard, typically a type of chip card, is a plastic card that contains an embedded computer chip- either a memory or microchip type- that stores and transacts data.” The website continues on about how the data and information is stored and managed from within the card.
There are many types of smart cards out there used for various purposes from i.d. card and health card to transit and ATM cards; any card that contains memory and a microprocessor, classified as a smart card (Yeow et al., 2009). The smart card that I will focus specifically on is EMV (sometimes referred to as chip or PIN) cards, EMV s...

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...he support will greatly increase. From what I have learned about EMV cards I think that they are great and I very much support their implementation into our markets. I hope that you too have learned something about EMV, microchip card technology, and have come to better understand what they are, how they work, and how they increase card security.
Conclusion
Now that I have discussed what EMV cards are, how they work, why they are more secure, and the decrease in card fraud I hope you have a better understanding of the smart card technology. I hope you can see how switching to this technology can help decrease credit and debit card fraud, and hopefully leave us with fewer data breaches such as the Target breach last year. By using microchip cards businesses and consumers can help keep their data secure and reduce the expense that comes with credit card fraud.

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