Chip and PIN - as safe as Swiss cheese condoms

Thursday, February 28th, 2008

UK research has revealed a serious flaw in Chip and PIN machines that authenticate debit and credit card transactions. Two of the most popular PIN entry devices in the UK are vulnerable to a paper clip, a needle and a small recording device. This is because UK banks opted to issue cheaper cards that do not use asymmetric cryptography to encrypt data. Tampered PIN entry devices have already been used to steal £80,000 from 1,500 people when crooks cloned their cards using a doctored device in a local petrol station.

categories: assertions