Java card: Internet computing on a smart card

The smart card-which offers Internet programmers a truly safe place to generate and store a private encryption key-will soon be recognized as a useful component of Internet computing. Until now the security precautions surrounding smart-card technology have effectively prevented its use in general computing systems, but the recent implementation of the secure Internet language Java on a smart card not only opens up smart-card programming to everyone but connects smart cards directly with standard programming applications in use on the Internet.