Electronic card, chip card – universal carrier of data in form of plastic card with one or few integrated circuits placed on it (or inside it) that allow to protect the process of users loging in, control of access and recorded data. It can be read via automatic devices or digital cash-desks.

Electronic cards have such advantages as:

- multiplication of services – one card can have many applications, can be at the same time identification card, cash or credit card;
- very effective data protection – reading out data from card requires complicated magnetic cards reading devices; part of data can be encoded and impossible to read without special key;
- higher elasticity – enables quick modification of data; electronic card can contain much more data than cards with magnetic stripes.

Electronic cards have found many usages in daily life. Most common of them are:

- cards of access to rooms and assets
- identity cards in form of electronic legitimation or electronic certificates
- cash cards

Electronic cards, regarding way of transferring data, are divided into two types:

- touch cards – with simple construction of junction, most of modern cards use such solution;
- non-touching cards – used in cases when there is a need for very quick operations, for example by entrance gates; they are hard to forge; they offer cheaper and less complicated modernization than touch cards and are much easier to use while user does not have to take it out of wallet or bag.