Prox card technology (like our AlphaPass cards) has been around since the 1990s and while it is solid and reliable technology, it isn’t the most secure or flexible. Businesses today want to get the most value out of every expense, and are quickly switching to smart cards – and AlphaCard is excited to now carry a wide range of HID iCLASS smart cards!

What Makes Smart Cards Different?

Prox cards use a low frequency and can only send data to card readers. Their signal is not secured, and the data is not protected – but if you are only using the cards to unlock doors, this often isn’t a concern.

But what if you want to send and receive data, use your cards in multiple ways, and need to secure the card’s information to meet security protocols? Try smart cards!

Using a higher frequency that can read and write, smart cards have larger memories and multiple security options (including mutual authentication and multifactor authentication). This allows your organization to use them in a wide variety of applications including cashless payments in parking garages and cafeterias, logging onto computers or printers, accessing the network and other IT resources, and the still popular physical access control at doors.

You can learn more about smart card technology in the AlphaCard Learning Center. There’s even an article about integrating new smart card technology into your system.

Shop All iCLASS Smart Cards

HID iCLASS smart cards are the oldest of the iCLASS technologies, the first big upgrade over prox cards. These are less secure and have less flexibility than more advanced iCLASS cards.

HID iCLASS SE is the second generation of iCLASS smart card technology, and includes some improvements like SIO (Secure Identity Object) and better data security.

HID iCLASS Seos cards are the most advanced of the HID iCLASS smart cards. They have better data security (multifactor authentication, and even one time password authentication) and allow you to encode multiple SIO’s for the most flexibility in your card program. iCLASS Seos isn’t even limited to physical cards – you can also use your smart phone or smart watch!