Major Security Fear Over Chip and Pin Machines
Monday, March 30, 2009 16:10
A team of experts at Cambridge University have come up with a virtually foolproof way of stealing a consumer’s details. They reprogrammed a hand-held chip and Pin machine to allow them access to card details and Pins. It would be simple to swap their rigged machine for one in a store.
It is believed that this method could be easily replicated by the fraudsters. In theory, people could use this to steal account details from cards. So the experts have posted a video on the Internet as a warning.
The banking industry admitted that the situation is a worrying one and indicated that their own scientists are also working on ways of foiling the criminals. Experts from the payment organizations—the high street banks, are currently in discussion with the manufacturers of terminals to see what can be done.
However, this has only been seen in a laboratory so far. People might not be able to create counterfeit chip and Pin cards, but they could use this information abroad to make purchases.
Figures show that in spite of the potential problems, card fraud has declined ever since chip and pin was introduced. In the six months to last June, total card fraud fell by 5% to £209.3m.
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