A secure access module or secure application module (SAM) is a piece of

cryptographic Cryptography, or cryptology (from grc, , translit=kryptós "hidden, secret"; and ''graphein'', "to write", or '' -logia'', "study", respectively), is the practice and study of techniques for secure communication in the presence of adve ...

hardware typically used by

smart card A smart card, chip card, or integrated circuit card (ICC or IC card) is a physical electronic authentication device, used to control access to a resource. It is typically a plastic credit card-sized card with an embedded integrated circuit (IC) c ...

card reader A card reader is a data input device that reads data from a card-shaped storage medium. The first were punched card readers, which read the paper or cardboard punched cards that were used during the first several decades of the computer industry ...

s to perform mutual

key authentication Key/Config-authentication is used to solve the problem of authenticating the keys of the person (say "person B") to some other person ("person A") is talking to or trying to talk to. In other words, it is the process of assuring that the key of "pe ...

. SAMs can be used to manage access in a variety of contexts, such as public transport

fare A fare is the fee paid by a passenger for use of a public transport system: rail, bus, taxi, etc. In the case of air transport, the term airfare is often used. Fare structure is the system set up to determine how much is to be paid by various pa ...

collection and

point of sale The point of sale (POS) or point of purchase (POP) is the time and place at which a retail transaction is completed. At the point of sale, the merchant calculates the amount owed by the customer, indicates that amount, may prepare an invoice f ...

devices. Physically, a SAM card can be a SIM card plugged into a SAM slot in a card reader, or a fixed

integrated circuit An integrated circuit or monolithic integrated circuit (also referred to as an IC, a chip, or a microchip) is a set of electronic circuits on one small flat piece (or "chip") of semiconductor material, usually silicon. Large numbers of tiny ...

in a housing directly soldered on a

printed circuit board A printed circuit board (PCB; also printed wiring board or PWB) is a medium used in Electrical engineering, electrical and electronic engineering to connect electronic components to one another in a controlled manner. It takes the form of a L ...

. Generally, a reader system consists of a

microcontroller A microcontroller (MCU for ''microcontroller unit'', often also MC, UC, or μC) is a small computer on a single VLSI integrated circuit (IC) chip. A microcontroller contains one or more CPUs (processor cores) along with memory and programmable i ...

and a reader IC to communicate over the RF interface with a

contactless smartcard A contactless smart card is a contactless credential whose dimensions are credit card, credit-card size. Its embedded integrated circuits can store (and sometimes process) data and communicate with a terminal via Near-field communication, NFC. C ...

. The microcontroller takes the part of controlling the reader IC functions such as protocol handling, command flow and data interpretation. By integrating a SAM into the reader system, the SAM handles all the

key management Key management refers to management of cryptographic keys in a cryptosystem. This includes dealing with the generation, exchange, storage, use, crypto-shredding (destruction) and replacement of keys. It includes cryptographic protocol design, ...

and cryptography in a secure way. The entire system enables

authentication Authentication (from ''authentikos'', "real, genuine", from αὐθέντης ''authentes'', "author") is the act of proving an assertion, such as the identity of a computer system user. In contrast with identification, the act of indicati ...

and

encryption In cryptography, encryption is the process of encoding information. This process converts the original representation of the information, known as plaintext, into an alternative form known as ciphertext. Ideally, only authorized parties can decip ...

of the contactless communication between the SAM and

host system Host system is any networked computer that provides services to other systems or users. These services may include but are not limited to printer, web or database In computing, a database is an organized collection of data stored and accessed ...

. SAMs can be deployed in any of the following applications: :* Generate application keys based on master keys :* Store and secure master keys :* Perform cryptographic functions with smart cards :* Use as a secure encryption device :* Perform mutual authentication :* Generate session keys :* Perform secure messaging

References

Encryption devices {{crypto-stub