[LINK] Consumer Credit-Card Risks

[Jan Whitaker]

At 11:49 AM 13/01/2010, Stephen Wilson wrote:
>Now, do you mind if I push the envelope a little?  The reason chip cards
>are important in payments is that, one way or another, they protect the
>integrity of the cardholder account number and other details, as
>transmitted with the user's consent (PIN), from the card to the
>terminal.  The details are encrypted (signed if you will) between the
>chip and the terminal, which stops replay attack and thwarts ID theft.
>More subtly, by increasing the dependability of those details, it means
>that in princple less personal information is needed to corroborate a
>transaction.

But wouldn't this protection only be the case if there were no 
magstripe that included the 'same' info as the chip? What I'm getting 
at is that the magstripe is still needed as long as the chip readers 
aren't ubiquitous.

Re the no sign use of cards, I have found something that may be an 
example at Melbourne Airport. Supposedly you can put your credit card 
in when you enter and then when you exit to have the payment 
automatically deducted when you leave instead of using a separate pay 
station box at the terminal or before leaving the carpark.

Jan



Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
jwhit at janwhitaker.com
blog: http://janwhitaker.com/jansblog/
business: http://www.janwhitaker.com

Our truest response to the irrationality of the world is to paint or 
sing or write, for only in such response do we find truth.
~Madeline L'Engle, writer

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