Smart cards, ISO 7816 and ISO 14443
All AmbiSecure engineering content tagged Smart Cards, newest first. Newer entries reflect current thinking; earlier entries come from the engineering archive.
A smart card is a credential built around a secure-element chip — contact (ISO 7816), contactless (ISO 14443), or dual-interface — that stores keys and runs cryptographic operations in tamper-resistant hardware. Smart cards underpin payment, national ID, PIV/CAC workforce access, transit, and increasingly FIDO authentication.
This category covers smart-card engineering: the JavaCard/GlobalPlatform stack, contact and contactless interfaces, personalisation, and how smart cards compare with FIDO tokens and passkeys for different deployments. The emphasis is on the practical trade-offs — form factor, interface, and lifecycle — behind choosing a card-based credential.
Articles tagged Smart Cards
Why Hardware-Backed Identity Matters
APDU From First Principles
DESFire EV1 vs EV2 vs EV3
Why SAMs Matter in Closed-Loop Transit
ePassport and How will chip-based e-Passports work
ePassport and Its Application
An Introduction to Java Card Technology
Understanding EMV certification In Public Transportation
Frequently asked questions
What makes a card 'smart'?
An embedded secure-element chip that stores keys and performs cryptography on-card, rather than a magnetic stripe or memory chip that merely holds static data.
What is the difference between contact and contactless cards?
Contact cards (ISO 7816) communicate through the metal pads when inserted; contactless cards (ISO 14443) use RF at short range; dual-interface cards support both from one secure element.
How do smart cards compare with FIDO security keys?
Both hold non-exportable keys in hardware. Smart cards suit issuance-based, PIV-style deployments and physical access; FIDO keys suit self-service web authentication — and modern smart cards can host FIDO applets too.
What do ISO/IEC 7816 and ISO/IEC 14443 each cover?
7816 defines contact cards, including the electrical interface and the APDU command structure. 14443 defines the contactless interface at 13.56 MHz. A dual-interface card implements both.
What is an APDU?
The Application Protocol Data Unit — the command and response format a reader uses to talk to a card. Every operation on a smart card is ultimately a sequence of APDUs.