this post was submitted on 18 Sep 2025
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What use a smart card reader? (lemmy.blahaj.zone)
submitted 2 weeks ago by BonkTheAnnoyed@lemmy.blahaj.zone to c/retrocomputing@lemmy.sdf.org
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cross-posted from: https://lemmy.blahaj.zone/post/31922512

I recently picked up an older but perfectly adequate HP Z Book Firefly with a built-in smart card reader and I'm wondering what possible use is this little bit of tech? Can I, like, auth with my credit card or whatever? (mostly joking, I briefly looked at the PAM config for that and prefer my current hobbies lol)

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[โ€“] jaredj 2 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

openpgp smartcard https://www.floss-shop.de/de/security-privacy/smartcards/

smartcards + computers didn't really pick up in the US outside the Department of Defense, which issued them. now that FIDO tokens are here, everybody's got a USB socket but not many people have a smartcard reader.

it's mostly just a very flat serial port

[โ€“] BonkTheAnnoyed@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2 points 2 weeks ago

Neat! I may play around with this.