INFORMATION CARD AND INFORMATION CARD SYSTEM

摘要

An information card system that eliminates forgery and illegal use of a card is proposed. An information card stores information data in a memory thereof . The information data contains inherent data embedded therein according to Steganography. The information card also stores a password for permitting th e information data to be read from the memory. A data processing terminal chec ks a submitted password against the stored password, and permits the informatio n data to be read from the memory when the passwords identify with each other. A customized key is submitted to extract the inherent data. The inherent data is permitted to be extracted only when submitted customized key is legitimate. The information card system is possible to both hide the presence of the inherent data and prevent unauthorized extraction of the inherent data becau se any unauthorized person is unaware of the customized key. Thus, the information card system provides a high level of security.