Considerations in Specifying Smart Card Connectors
By Jerome Smolinski, Senior Product Manager, C&K Components

As computer piracy and identify theft continue to grow, smart card connectors are becoming more popular than conventional magnetic strip credit cards because of their increased security protection. Manufacturers are developing smart card connectors that are highly reliable, compact, and provide piracy protection in numerous applications, including banking, metering/vending, and most importantly, point-of-sale (PoS) applications. Smart card connectors must be surface-mountable to be compatible with pick-and-place assembly equipment. These connectors must also comply with the expanding communication protocol requirements.

Pick-and-Place Assembly Requirements
Because the majority of manufacturers worldwide are using SMT lines, smart card connector products must meet increasing consumer demands for reliability, security integrity, and reduced size, while meeting manufacturing requirements for compatibility with pick-and-place equipment.

Smart card connectors are capable of providing increased protection against piracy in PoS applications, but it’s the compact, surface-mountable design of the connectors that is essential to meeting the level of security and functionality required by PoS terminal manufacturers. Manufacturers and customers who employ SMT assembly lines require smart card connectors to be pick-and-place compatible and surface-mountable to ensure a cost-efficient assembly process. These devices must also feature a reduced size for applications where space is critical.

As the use of smart card connectors in PoS terminals continues to grow, they must also be compact enough to meet space requirements for both wireless and wired applications. One option is to reduce the size of the contact base, thereby reducing the overall size of the connector, while also making it more stable during mounting. This design also creates an air gap between the contacts and card entry slot, reducing electrostatic transfer to the PC board.

Reliability
Manufacturers are continuously searching for connectors that provide piracy protection and expanded lifecycles, making smart card reliability essential. Many applications require connectors that are capable of extended use while simultaneously protecting against hackers. For example, the construction of a sliding connector enables the credit card to slide over the contacts when it is inserted and retrieved. This type of mechanism has a life of about 100,000 cycles. Conversely, in a landing system, the contact rises and touches the card when it’s inserted, allowing for a longer life span of about 500,000 cycles. New designs and material studies have led to new sliding connectors that can also reach 500,000 cycles. These unique connector capabilities ensure a secure contact that helps smart card readers achieve reliable and safe data transmission.

New Security Requirements
The PCI Security Standards Council (PCI-SSC) is a global, open industry standards body providing management of the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (DSS), PCI PIN Entry Device (PED) Security Requirements, and the Payment Application Data Security Standard (PA-DSS). PCI-SSC manages the PCI PED equipment approval listings and the PCI security requirements and supporting documents.

A PIN Entry Device (PED) is a cryptographic module used to protect the secrecy of a cardholder-entered PIN. The security that a PED provides for the protection of the PIN and the device-resident keys is a function of the device's physical and logical security characteristics. For credit card issuers, such as VISA International, such devices are central to conducting business.

Preventing Piracy
Most importantly, smart card connectors play an integral role in preventing piracy in point-of-sale applications, not simply through their performance, but also through the design and development of the connectors themselves. Manufacturers are developing smart card connectors that can be incorporated within anti-piracy systems. If identity theft is a concern to the end-user, the equipment manufacturer can ensure greater security by carefully considering certain specifications in connector choice. Manufacturers would have to require components to be sealed and protected against those looking to steal personal identification information.

As piracy attacks grow in severity and sophistication, increasing security is a crucial challenge for manufacturers. Customers, such as PoS terminal manufacturers and connector manufacturers, are continuously collaborating to develop better security solutions. Some manufacturers have attempted to accomplish this by using standard connectors on the PC board and implementing an anti-piracy system within the overall terminal. While a standard connector may cost less initially, it requires that additional devices be incorporated into the terminal itself, thus increasing both the cost and size of the end-product. Rather than add layers of protection inside the existing PoS terminal, it is more cost-effective to add increased security within the entry connector’s terminal tracks.

The use of multiple interconnected layers around the connector can detect many types of intrusion. The detection module protecting the contacts also adds to this first level of protection, preventing any attempt to probe the device.

C&K Components, for example, has developed anti-piracy smart card connectors by enhancing existing connector designs. The smart card connectors comply with the VISA PCI PED requirements, and the additional protection eliminates the possibility that a hacker could insert a bug on the connector and extract the PIN details. The surface mount connectors are RoHS-compliant and feature 100,000 and 500,000 card insertion cycles. There is also sufficient room underneath the connector to place space-sensitive SMT components.

C&K’s CCM02 smart card connectors meet
industry demands for reliability and security, and
feature a lifespan of 500,000 card insertion cycles

As the market for PoS terminals continues to grow, customers are demanding that manufacturers develop compact, SMT smart card connectors to increase reliability and security. Manufacturers like C&K Components have met these demands by creating smart card connectors that increase the security level against potential hackers, while also meeting industry demands for increased reliability. Smart card connectors will continue to play a key role in increasing reliability in point-of-sale equipment, while at the same time preventing piracy, reducing costs, and providing a highly reliable device that is compatible with assembly systems on a wide range of applications.

Jerome Smolinski joined C&K in 2002 as product manager for Smart Card Connectors for the Americas. Before joining C&K, he held various positions in product marketing management at Amphenol, and was a project manager for FCI. Smolinski graduated from the Superior School of Technology and Business in France and after his stay in the Boston area, he relocated to the C&K facility in France, where he is currently working as senior product manager for tact switches and smart card connectors. He can be reached at Jerome.Smolinski@coactive-tech.com.