Registers – Records – Conductive
Patent
1996-07-30
1998-03-24
Hajec, Donald T.
Registers
Records
Conductive
235380, 235379, G06K 1906, G06K 0500, G06F 1760
Patent
active
057315760
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The invention relates to chip cards and to systems of transaction using these cards. It relates more particularly to chip cards wherein the chip has a memory and a microprocessor. It is even possible to envisage the possibility of having at least two chips on one and the same card, one for the memory and one for the microprocessor.
A typical transaction system that uses chip cards is the electronic wallet which works as follows: a chip card belonging to a person may be replenished at a banking institution so as to contain a new fiduciary value that replaces bank notes, this person's bank account being debited by a corresponding value. This card may be used for an exchange of money with a third party (a tradesman, for example) having a similar card: a part of the money available in the first card is credited to the second card, the balance in which is thus increased. The balance in the first card is reduced accordingly. After a certain number of operations of this kind, the second card may be unloaded at a banking institution to effect the transfer of the balance in the card to an account of the holder of this card.
Another system of transaction may consist in replenishing the cards periodically at replenishment terminals distributed over a geographic area, and then in consuming goods or services by means of the card. The balance in the card decreases as and when it is used until the replenished amount is all used up. The periodically replenished amount may be fixed or variable. It may be the same amount for an entire population of card-holders, for example in one application where canteen cards are replenished at the beginning of the month with a fixed number of meals or a fixed sum of money.
The transaction systems, involving units of value as well as information elements, generally require precautions to be taken against fraud. For this purpose, they use confidential information, secret codes, algorithms for checking secret codes, information encryption algorithms, etc.
The French patent application FR-A-2 653 648 filed by the present Applicant has described secured transaction systems for chip cards that do not necessarily have any microprocessor. Essentially, the card is a memory card in which the non-volatile memory has at least four different zones. A first zone is reserved for data elements for the identification of the card (in principle there are no two cards having the same identification data elements). A second zone is reserved for a balance of account that diminishes as and when the card is used. A third zone records the number of operations performed with the card. And a fourth zone contains a certificate used to ascertain that the balance in the card has not been modified between two operations. The certificate is placed in this fourth zone by the card reader at the end of a transaction. It is computed by bringing the identity of the card, the balance and the number of operations into play. During a following use of the card, the card reader uses the same algorithm to ascertain that the certificate is truly the one corresponding to the identity of the card, the balance recorded and the number of operations recorded. If this is not so, it takes steps corresponding to the violation detected. For example it prohibits all transactions or it retains the card or it sends the identity of the card to a central server, etc.
Although this system is very simple and gives a high degree of security, it has been seen that it has drawbacks for certain cases of organization of transaction systems.
For example, one organization of transactions in which this mode of security has drawbacks is the following: when users have to replenish their card with an institution, using replenishment terminals distributed over a specified geographical area and connected to a central server, the checks are made by the server and this takes up a great deal of on-line transmission time if the users are numerous. If they all have to replenish their cards at approximately the same time, for example a
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patent: 4992646 (1991-02-01), Collin
patent: 5030806 (1991-07-01), Collin
patent: 5206488 (1993-04-01), Teicher
patent: 5534683 (1996-07-01), Rankl et al.
Gemplus Card International
Hajec Donald T.
Le Thien Minh
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