Jornada 720's Smartcard

Hi All,

Is the Jornada 720's smartcard usable without a driver. I've heard that the smartcard reader need's a driver from HP. I can't find anything about it anywhere Also can it read and write to smartcards?

Nick

There is no security scanner daemon for it, so it doesn't have any security system implementation. It does have a hardware driver and it is loaded. Stick your credit card in it.

Note: Stick your credit card in it at your OWN risk.

How do you use the smartcard when it is inserted? Can you read/write to like a storage card?

Nick

A SmartCard is for storing data just like your credit card. It isn't a RAM technology, it is predominantly for security, to prove you are who you say you are and have the privilages to do what you are trying to do.

What do I need to 'setup' a blank smartcard?

Nick

Blank Cards, knowledge of the input controller ISO standard, writer, and an understanding of Microprocessors as well as a low level programming language.

Then you have to write the Windows CE software...

Arrh Scary. Will look into it.

Nick

From my dabbling with smartcard while aiding my clients implement the Winlogon GINA.dll for Windows desktop, most smartcard are provided by vendors with the appropriate smartcard interfacing etc.

Most of the time, accessing the data requires the app to use some smartcard libraries provided by the vendor to submit a series of data (id, hash, pw, etc) and receiving the returned hash or return code. This is the case for typical authentication. In this case, data is not really stored on the card, just the "identity". This identity allows the processing app to verify and subsequently retrieve the actual data from a remote data store.

For credit cards, you prob gotta be a vendor, or else it is unlikely that you will have access to the usually proprietary libraries required to talk to the card. You prob can "access" the card with generic libraries, but the smartcard will prob not give you anything sensible ... the smartness in the smartcard would give you garbage if you are not an authorised app trying to access its info.

The credit card example was simply to prove that the scanner driver is loaded and detects the card. What hp failed to impliment was anything from further up the food chain in the relevant ISO standards associated with SmartCards.

It is inexorable that each vendor will have their own proprietary code standard based on how they opted to access the microprocessor.
As the data capacity of these things isn't overtly large. I would summise the largest data capacity SmartCard varient I know of would be a SIM card, which has limited PhoneBook storage.

They're certainly not for storing Word documents and MP3's people... if that was implied... it wasn't.

There is of course still the issue of writing the access and security software for it for HPC2000, probably the most difficult part of the system.

Well that Idea goes out of the window! I wanted to use it to write to the card to use it as an extra network security tool. Password are ok there so easy to hack . Its to difficalt for me plus I wouldn't have the time

Nick

It is a big pain that hp added the hardware but never the software, having it as a security method on the H/PC would have been really brillient on the H/PC.

There would have been some logistical problems though, such as the need for directory integration (Netware and Actvie Directory for example) - which is probably why hp never implimented the software.

There is also the issue of someone who pinches the device probably isn't after the data but the hardware, so just hard reset it... now think about if hp were to impliment a new Jornada with it on now. Have smartcard / finger print recognition on it and keep the user cache in the devices non-volatile RAM area (as is common on the P/PC).

Doesn't matter how many times you hard reset it, the database is still there (so long as the security driver / software is in ROM).

It was a little ahead of its time perhaps.

Not going to bother. Unless somebody writes some software that can do it

Nick

Hi, well I have been to HOWSTUFFWORKS.COM and stuff, lol, and I have read about what a smart card is, I just don't fully understand!
Can someone break it down, into simple basic terms, what a smart card ca be used for!? I mean it's security, so is it like a swipe card to gain access to locked doors!? OR WHAT!?
HELP APPRECIATED,

............IB a n e

From what I know, a smartcard is like a mag stripe card (one that has a black strip on it) but more secure (the data anyway) so yes it can be used for doors and stuff like that.

Hope this helps,

Nick