So you’ve chosen the best access control reader for your organisation; now it’s time to find the right smartcard for entry to your premises.
Like all technology, newer systems tend to be more secure and sophisticated. The access control card in particular has evolved considerably in recent years, transitioning from magstripe cards to prox cards and on to smart cards.
Magstripe cards and prox cards
Magstripe cards are traditionally the lowest-security card, with its technical details being well documented by ISO standards. This technology typically uses few or no security protections.
Low-frequency (125 kHz) cards, often known as proximity cards, or just prox cards, have been the standard in the security industry for the last 15 or 20 years, offering efficient and effective access control.
At their simplest, these cards allowed a person access to a building. Whoever had a company-issued card in their possession could enter the building; this could be an employee who was issued a card or a perpetrator who gained access using a lost or stolen card.
Over time, companies began adding visual security, such as a photograph on the card, to provide a basic form of authentication. Best security practices would require employees to wear their photo ID/access cards and empower security staff to challenge anyone without proper identification.
Unfortunately, prox cards are now subject to cloning. There are devices available that enable someone to make a duplicate card, giving them unfettered access to a restricted building. Unless the building also has security cameras, or someone witnesses this person entering the building, there will be no way to know an unauthorised person has access.
Of course, although cloning doesn’t always happen even when a company has old technology, there are many reasons someone would be motivated to clone a card — these range from gaining access to high-value information or assets to a disgruntled former employee seeking retribution.
Contactless smart cards
Today’s gold standard for access control applications is the contactless smart card. These high-frequency cards are fast becoming the technology of choice for many organisations — with security, convenience, and interoperability as the three major reasons for this growth.
Contactless smart cards provide a higher level of security than traditional prox cards by using diversified keys and mutual authentication to deter anyone from gaining unauthorised access to the card or reader, and encrypted data storage to add an incremental level of protection to the information on the card.
These high-frequency cards have unsurprisingly proliferated, and the industry has also begun moving to a new benchmark in smart card technology that delivers highly adaptable, interoperable, and secure access control solutions.
NFC
The high-frequency credentials that are available in traditional plastic smart cards are also portable and can be carried in NFC-enabled smartphones or other such mobile devices. This means a regular smartphone can become a ‘digital key’ capable of unlocking doors in the same way a smart card would.
These credentials are capable of delivering superior data integrity and enhanced privacy protection by leveraging the latest, standardised, cryptographic algorithms for securing contactless communications. In order to protect data transmission with off-card applications, these credentials also continue to employ a secure messaging protocol to provide full data confidentiality.
Looking ahead, the cards of the future will increasingly incorporate expanded digital storage capacity so they can include biometric and other multi-factor authentication information to enhance identity validation. Moreover, advances in printing technology will simplify how cards are produced and distributed, while making them more secure.
Enjoy the latest fire and security news, updates and expert opinions sent straight to your inbox with IFSEC Insider's essential weekly newsletters. Subscribe today to make sure you're never left behind by the fast-evolving industry landscape.
Sign up now!
No matter what style of card you choose make sure you understand how the card format is handled. There is nothing like buying a batch of cards then trying to buy another batch 5 years later and trying to figure out how to match the previous cards. Some access control systems or time card systems don’t like multiple card formats and no one wants to go through the hassle of finding out that you bought the wrong cards.
The easiest way to ensure the access card or credential is in the right hands is to implement PIN card readers on main perimeter entrances and either make people enter a PIN after presenting their card at all times or if that is not popular then how about just out-of-hours? This is far cheaper and easier to manage than a biometric verification solution. Smart cards can also be cloned just like Proximity cards but for all cloning you have to have the card to copy it first and if you do have it why not use it rather than make a copy? If the… Read more »