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The Asia Pacific Smart Card Association
Up-to-date information on the technology and its applications, and forthcoming meetings and events.
Smart Card Industry Association
Global trade association which strives to stimulate the use, understanding and innovation of smartcard technology.
The Smart Card Developers Association
Experts in security software.
Smart card links and resources
Worldwide links to organizations and documents related to smartcards.
Smart cards: readings and resources
From Center for Instructional Technology.
A leap in the dark

For detractors, the e-commerce potential of Malaysia's MPC raises the sinister specter of fraud.

In the U.S., doubts were cast recently by a leading telecommunications company that encryption systems operated by smartcards were not tamper-proof. The cards could enable criminals to store "counterfeit" electronic money--the electronic equivalent to forging counterfeit banknotes.

The development of advanced encryption and security systems should therefore be high on the agenda of MPC developers.

Another question is that of privacy. Putting identity, medical history, creditworthiness and other intimate details on a single card allows access to data on an individual, which previously was stored on different databases.

Government, financial institutions and manufacturers all have an obligation to ensure that a cardholder's right to privacy is not violated. Such issues are set to color the development of Malaysia's MPC over the coming years.

But by committing to the one supercard utopia, Malaysia has already taken the road of no return.

Only one thing is certain--the financial stakes are high.

If Malaysia bets on the wrong technology, it will pay the costly price of experimentation. If it backs the right technology, the MPC will open up not just a national market, but a global one.


 

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