No-Swipe Credit Cards Contain High Security, Privacy Costs
Tens of millions of 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 -- have been issued, and equipment for their use is showing up at a growing number of locations. But in tests on 20 cards from Visa, MasterCard and American Express, the researchers here found that the cardholder�s name and other data was being transmitted without encryption and in plain text. They could skim and store the information from a card with a device the size of a couple of paperback books, which they cobbled together from readily available computer and radio components for $150.
Researchers See Privacy Pitfalls in No-Swipe Credit Cards, New York Times, October 23, 2006.
