Link to video
Fiscal the Fraud-Fighting Ferret has also starred in videos about safe social networking and refusing those who call to ask for personal information.
Joined: 11/4/2007
Posts: 1772
Location: Australia, Victoria
The makers of that video do realize Ferrets are often and historically associated with theft, right?
Edit: Oh, Queensland police. Yeah, they were called out for this quite a while ago.
I wonder why credit/debit cards still have the magnetic stripe even when it also has the chip. The chip adds security (afaik it's significantly harder to copy by simply trying to read it), but this security is completely nullified by the card having the magnetic stripe which serves the same function. What's the point?
Joined: 6/25/2007
Posts: 732
Location: Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
There are still some ATMs which can't read the chips. The magnetic stripe will surely be abolished when such ATMs eventually phase out completely. It requires infrastructure work, which isn't universal or instantaneous.
I wonder why credit/debit cards still have the magnetic stripe even when it also has the chip. The chip adds security (afaik it's significantly harder to copy by simply trying to read it), but this security is completely nullified by the card having the magnetic stripe which serves the same function. What's the point?
blame amurrikkka
our cards don't have chips because the government still doesn't require them
I wonder why credit/debit cards still have the magnetic stripe even when it also has the chip. The chip adds security (afaik it's significantly harder to copy by simply trying to read it), but this security is completely nullified by the card having the magnetic stripe which serves the same function. What's the point?
When you have lost the PIN code of the card for a reason or other, or the Internet connections are down in the store or some other technical reason prevents using the chip-based system, stores can still charge you the old fashioned way, i.e. reading the magnetic stripe and asking you to sign the receipt.
I do this always with a certain bank card because I have lost the PIN code due to no fault of my own, and it costs money to order a new one.
I do this always with a certain bank card because I have lost the PIN code due to no fault of my own, and it costs money to order a new one.
Isn't it suspicious to go to a store, use the card and say "sorry, I forgot my pin number; no it's not stolen or anything, it's my card"? It would feel awkward... :P
Isn't it suspicious to go to a store, use the card and say "sorry, I forgot my pin number; no it's not stolen or anything, it's my card"? It would feel awkward... :P
It is only routine for the cashiers. They're just doing their job, so no, there is no pressure. And they do check the ID when you do that.
Joined: 10/27/2004
Posts: 1978
Location: Making an escape
You mean the chips that can be passively scanned from a short distance?
Watched the other videos in this series. Good grief that was trippy. We need more viruses that can cause computers to spontaneously combust!
A hundred years from now, they will gaze upon my work and marvel at my skills but never know my name. And that will be good enough for me.
Some (many?) European cards use the equivalent of one-time pads -- each time you use the card, you input a code from a pad you carry with you, and each code can only be used once. Much more secure than a PIN, since the codes would have to be physically stolen from you for the card to be usable.
Pyrel - an open-source rewrite of the Angband roguelike game in Python.
Joined: 5/2/2006
Posts: 1020
Location: Boulder, CO
If they actually cared about stolen card numbers they would have switched to digital signing as a validation method a long time ago.
It would be simple:
1. have the store generate a file containing a list of what you want to buy and its price
2. transmit this to a device containing your bank account's private key
3. have the device sign the file and send it back to the merchant
4. the merchant can send the signed file to the bank to get paid.
The bank can then read the file using your public key, and be quite sure that you authorized the transaction.
Impossible to fake a transaction, impossible to store transaction data for use for fraud later.
There would be no card number to steal (only the private key which would never be revealed to anyone, since it would stay on the device), the only way this system could break down would be when people lose their "cards".
It is not exactly a unique idea, so the only reason that a system like this is not in common use is that changing the infrastructure would cost more than the added security is worth. It would also probably put paypal out of business, so mabey they are the ones making sure we actually need their added layer of protection.
