A method for resetting a pin on an access card is disclosed. The method includes generating a server authentication (SA) public key and an SA private key and attempting a write of the SA public key to the access card over a non-secure channel. The method further includes determining if the access card currently contains an existing SA public key. The attempted write of the SA public key is handled by one of: (i) completing the attempted write of the SA public key to the access card over the non-secure channel if it is determined that the access card did not contain an existing public key; (ii) denying the attempted write of the SA public key to the access card over the non-secure channel if it is determined that the existing SA public key matches the SA public key that is attempted by the write; and (iii) denying the attempted write of the SA public key to the access card over the non-secure channel if it is determined that the existing SA public key does not match the SA public key that is attempted by the write.