[IP] Researchers See Privacy Pitfalls in No-Swipe Credit Cards
Begin forwarded message:
From: Evan Korth <korth@xxxxxxxxxx>
Date: October 22, 2006 7:50:36 PM EDT
To: Dave Farber <dave@xxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: Researchers See Privacy Pitfalls in No-Swipe Credit Cards
By JOHN SCHWARTZ
Published: October 23, 2006
AMHERST, Mass. . They call it the .Johnny Carson attack,. for his
comic pose as a psychic divining the contents of an envelope.
Tom Heydt-Benjamin tapped an envelope against a black plastic box
connected to his computer. Within moments, the screen showed a
garbled string of characters that included this: fu/kevine, along
with some numbers.
Mr. Heydt-Benjamin then ripped open the envelope. Inside was a credit
card, fresh from the issuing bank. The card bore the name of Kevin E.
Fu, a computer science professor at the University of Massachusetts,
Amherst, who was standing nearby. The card number and expiration date
matched those numbers on the screen.
The demonstration revealed potential security and privacy holes in a
new generation of credit cards . cards whose data is relayed by radio
waves without need of a signature or physical swiping through a
machine. Tens of millions of the cards have been issued, and
equipment for their use is showing up at a growing number of
locations, including CVS pharmacies, McDonald.s restaurants and many
movie theaters.
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http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/23/business/23card.html
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