Glossary
BAC
Basic Access Control
Background System
A computer system involved in the processsing and administration of data from the terminal hierarchy.
Bandwidth
The amount of capacity occupied by an individual communication signal.
BankNet
The MasterCard US communications network
Barcode Common
Barcode Common Method of product identification consisting of a series of lines of varying thickness as an information code.
BASE
Bank-Americard Service Exchange
Batch Card
A smart card that carries a key that enables its holder to unlock a shipment or batch of other smart cards. A batch card carries a transport key. See also mother card.
Bell-La Padula Security Model
Formal-state transition model of computer security policy that describes a formal set of access controls based on information sensitivity and subject authorizations.
BER
Basic Encoding Rules Rules for encoding as ASN.1 object into a byte sequence
Biba Integrity Model
A formal security model for the integrity of subjects and objects in a system.
BIN
Bank Identification Number
Bio API
Biometric Application Program Interface (biometrics)
Biometrics
Authentication techniques to identify a person based on particular phyical characteristics such as fingerprints, iris scan, hand geometry, voice print, or dynamic signature.
BIOS
Basic Input Output System
BioSP
Biometric Services Platform
Bit
A binary digit, the term was first used in 1949
Black book
A catalog of information used to subvert smart card security systems.
Blinding
Taking provisions in a smart card’s operation to defeat voltage and timing attacks. Blinding, for example, would ensure that all multiplications take the same amount of time independent of the values of the multiplier and the multiplicand.
Block
Action taken by an issuer to prevent the use of a card, or a particular application on a chip card
Bluetooth
Radiofrequency transmission technology (2.45 GHz) dedicated to telephones personal assistants, notebooks, laptop PCs and other portable objects. It originates in a project launched by Ericsson, IBM, Intel, Nokia and Toshiba. It offers a 1Mbit/s flow rate with a range of several metres. Its distinctive features is its sturdiness and safe transmission means, allowing very easy data exchanges between various pieces of equipment, including smart cards. A lower power radio technology developed to replace the cables and infrared links for distances up to ten meters.
Bomb
A general synonym for crash, normally of software or operating system failures.
Bps
Bits-per-second. Amount of information data transmitted per second.
Breach
The successful defeat of security controls which could result in a penetration of the system. A violation of controls of a particular information system such that information assets or system components are unduly exposed.
Bright, Roy
The French publicist who coined the term smart card.
Brute force attack
Attack on a cryptographic system through computing all possible values of a key.
Buffer
Attack on a magnetic stripe cards. Terminal reading of the magnetic stripe card and then writing back after data is modified.
Buffer Overflow
This happens when more data is put into a buffer or holding area, then the buffer can handle. This is due to a mismatch in processing rates between the producing and consuming processes. This can result in system crashes or the creation of a back door leading to system access.
Bug
An unwanted and unintended property of a program or piece of hardware, especially one that causes it to malfunction
Bureau A
service provider in charge of card initialization and personalization. Commonly approved by the payment association in order to issue the financial application card
Bureau Association
Process of associating a registered bureau and a card issuer, so that the associated bureau can request MULTOS enablement data (initialization data) in place of the issuer
Byte
An 8-bit word, commonly used to represent a single character.
Byte string
A sequence of bytes.