Security is the main concern for smartcards.
As you can see from the dates of the ANSI documents, the DES algorithm is no longer young. In fact, the original DES algorithm is usually referred to as Single DES , and must now be regarded as less than completely secure. Special-purpose hardware can be constructed for several tens of thousands of dollars, that can break Single DES encryption in less than a day. For this reason, a stronger version, Triple DES, has become a de facto standard in the banking world. This algorithm is generally believed to be safe against all currently feasible attacks.