Secure access module

A Secure Access Module (SAM), also known as a Secure Application Module, is a piece of cryptographic hardware typically used by smart card card readers to perform mutual key authentication.

[1][2][3] SAMs can be used to manage access in a variety of contexts, such as public transport fare collection and point of sale devices.

A typical smart card reader system generally consists of the following key components: By integrating a SAM into the reader system, the security functionalities are centralized and offloaded from the MCU.

The SAM assumes responsibility for:[4] SAMs can be deployed in any of the following applications:[6][2][7][8]

This cryptography-related article is a stub.