But this information helped the security industry, including smart card manufacturers, to develop counterattacks and self-defense mechanisms in future smart card implementations. The industry, therefore, was able to improve the security of the next generation of products. Whenever a system is attacked, whether it is successful or not, the SCIA Security Committee will mobilize its resources and knowledge to help the industry improve the level of security of the next generation of products. SCIA will be prepared to answer questions from existing customers about the real dangers of a given attack on various types of systems that are of concern. The following set of questions and answers is an example of what the SCIA Security Committee will develop.
Smart cards are some of the most secure devices available today.
These cards are used to secure access to nuclear sites or nuclear weapons in various countries. Smart cards are tamper-resistant but not tamperproof and the system design must take care of possible successful attacks. Each new generation of chips comes with more security features than previously, but the card interface or the application in the terminal is not affected. In other words, security can be improved incrementally in a system. This question does not deal with smart cards but deals with cryptography itself.