In 1994, Mifare( MIkron FARE Collection System) Classic IFCs brought out a revolutionary invention called the Mifare Classic cards. This smart card left behind all other previous versions. It is a pioneer in contactless smart card ICs(Integrated Circuit chips) with a frequency of 13.56MHz. AES( advanced encryption standard), DES(data encryption standard) and a previous encryption algorithm, Crypto-1 is used in this IC. Mifare is owned by NXP Semiconductors. NXP was spun off from Phillips Electronics in 2006.
Over 10 billion smart card chips and 150 million reader modules of Mifare cards have been sold in 70 countries. It covers 85% of smart cards market. The 1k memory of Mifare Classic has a data storage of 1023 bytes and it is divided into 16 sectors of 4 data blocks each. It offers a reading/writing distance of 10cm. It has true random number generator and a write endurance 200,000 cycles.
Mifare Classic EV1 is far more advanced in Mifare Classic family with increased Electro Static Discharge robustness and Random ID support for 7 byte UID version. It is also available in Mifare EV1 4k version.It has an internal antenna and chip that reacts as the card is in the magnetic field of reader. Mifare cards can be used to clone other cards as well. They are ASIC based with simple security mechanisms for access control and limited computational power.
These cards are broadly used in the following sectors
-Public transport: For smart, safe travel and cashless payment. Oyster Card London, Troika Card Moscow, Clipper Card San Francisco are some examples.
-Security management in stadiums in Istanbul, Manchester, Munich, Sao Paulo.
-Universities like Technical University Delft, National University of Singapore, San Francisco University, Cambridge University use these cards for campus management and campus badges for students.
-Corporate ID cards in General Motors, Nestlé, Daimler Benz, the EU Commission.
-Electronic toll collection.
-In hotels like Savoy, Rosewood, Hilton, Hyatt, Intercontinental, Marriott Mifare card is used for hotel rooms keys.
To program a Mifare Classic card follow the mentioned steps:
-The card is put on the programming reader.
-The staff record created is selected.
-Mifare Card Programming is opened then Write Card is to be clicked.
-A pop up message is seen on the reader to ensure the successful programming of card.
Mifare Classic cards are reliable with low prices and small sizes to be used in RFID wristbands, smartphones and key fobs.
A unique identifier(UID) that can be a numeric or alphanumeric string is assigned to a particular card. Once assigned it can not be changed and provides access to the assigned entity only.
