Next Page E-commerce means different things to different people. Some people, for example, limit the meaning of e-commerce to commerce conducted over the Internet and the Web. For the purposes of this chapter, we're going to use the term more widely. Under this admittedly overly broad definition, almost the entire economy is touched by some aspect of e-commerce. We're intentionally invoking this broad definition to emphasize the utility of smart cards for transacting business.
Smart cards are seemingly an excellent medium for carrying password-protected personal data.
In addition, smart cards can store value. Card carriers can decide with whom to share data and with whom to transact business and use their cards only with those vendors they choose to trust. Somewhat ironically, one of the most unfortunate consequences of this kind of smart card is that secret keys on the card are known only to the issuing bank and must remain secret from the owner. If the card owner can somehow retrieve a secret key, then he or she can mint electronic cash. In light of the physical attacks sketched earlier in the chapter, this is a serious problem.