Large networks are difficult to protect against various forms of malicious attack.
One method is to assure the identity of the users. This is normally accomplished by using passwords. The difficulty with passwords is that they are limited by careless use and careless creation of passwords, computer guessing of the password, telling other the password, and writing the password down where others can read it. Smartcards can be protected by integrating the fingerprint reader on the smartcard itself, so that pattern recognition circuitry on the card performs a check on the owner of the card each time it is used. Although there are approaches towards achieving this, the technology is still in its very early stages.