[1269] in cryptography@c2.net mail archive
Re: Fortezza dying on the vine?
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Jeff Weinstein)
Mon Jul 28 18:25:08 1997
Date: Mon, 28 Jul 1997 15:00:53 -0700
From: jsw@netscape.com (Jeff Weinstein)
To: pgut001@cs.auckland.ac.nz
CC: PADGETT@hobbes.orl.mmc.com, cryptography@c2.net
Peter Gutmann wrote:
> There's a fourth kind which you haven't mentioned: Readers built into
> keyboards. These are starting to appear (mainly in Europe), require no extra
> IRQ's or slots or serial ports or whatever, and only a small change in the
> keyboard driver software. Most of the components (case, lead, connector to
> computer, power source, interface circuitry) are already present, so the cost
> is relatively low. It remains to be seen how popular they'll become
> though.
I've heard that the incremental cost of a reader built into the
keyboard is 50 cents. Another good alternative is a reader that
sits on the keyboard port, between the keyboard and the computer.
From the computer, these devices look the same as the ones
built into the keyboard. Both types of readers have the advantage
that when the user types their PIN, it never goes to the computer,
but is intercepted directly by the card/reader.
I expect that keyboard readers will the the most common in
coming years. They are much cheaper than the floppy drive
readers.
Several vendors now support smart cards with Netscape Communicator,
including Litronic and Datakey. Litronic has a nice bundle of
software, a keyboard reader, and a commemorative smart card. Their
cards are the traditional credit card form factor. Datakey's
tokens are shaped like a real key, so they can be kept on your
keyring, and they have more memory, so that can hold bigger certs.
--Jeff
