A Smart Card in Every Window

Microsoft has recently announced free availability of the Microsoft Smart Card SDK for Windows and Windows NT-tools to create smart card-aware applications that will enable virtual private networks and facilitate Internet commerce. The development kit is based on the PC/SC (Personal Computer/Smart Card) Workgroup specifications designed to address incompatibilities among smart-card readers.

The Microsoft strategy is to promote a standard model for interfacing smart-card readers and cards with PCs, develop device-independent APIs for enabling smart card-aware applications, provide familiar tools for software development, and ensure that the technology is well integrated with Windows and Windows NT. The model has three mechanisms for accessing the services supported by a smart card: Win32, CryptoAPI, and SCard COM. Most developers will develop applications using SCard COM or CryptoAPI, depending on their target market and the capabilities of a given smart card.

CryptoAPI is the cryptographic API for writing cryptographic services independently of the underlying cryptographic algorithm.

SCard COM is a low-level, noncryptographic interface implementation provided by Microsoft for accessing basic smart-card services. This set of base COM interface objects can be used to build higher-level interfaces and/or applications.