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7.5.3 Encryption and Key Generation

The third potential value to a company is the encryption and key generation capabilities that smart cards have. Licensing agreements for public key technology are typically much less restrictive when the technology is confined to a physical device. By storing the user's private keys in secure card storage, and using card encryption capabilities to generate authentication information from the keys, the encryption technology need not be implemented in the host system. The cards' ability to generate random numbers may also be useful as a source for keys.


Denis Arnaud
12/19/1997