Credit and Smart cards the inside story
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It is the year 2007 now 19 years ago in 1988 the plastic money generation began the electronic method of credit-card processing known as EftPos (electronic funds transfer at point of sale). By 1989 I was using various EftPos systems which include debit cards — bank cards for paying instead of cheques, to which I feel much safer about my bank account. Nowadays I do not shop Where electronic transfer is not available, credit-card details can be checked by anyone if the merchant is careless even sending your account into excess of your limit.
I believe the EFT system can cut down the amount of much of the many types of card fraud, because the computer can cancel further transactions immediately a card loss is reported, and will nor accept a forged card.
Credit and Smart cards are they really as smart as they think. I have been of the belief that these new generation cards would be far superior to old style credit and info cards which my wallet is full of. I have been wishing for the last 13 years or so the government would bring them in as they can hold much of the data spread across the many current cards in one card. There was talk a few years back about bringing in the Australia card which by my understanding was intended to by a smart card.
If the card can help stop fraud and the access of details in each section has a password it is my understanding that only the government would have full access to your entire information. Why then are the Australian public not wanting to give this information to the government that they already have? The only reason one can deduce is these people are feeling guilty about something. I am unable to have a drivers licence and do not wish to waste money on a passport I may not use, but this card would be worth it I could have a smaller wallet.
^ When you push your plastic card into a cash dispenser, a scanning device — an electromagnetic recording and erasing head — checks the dark brown strip on the underside. This strip is magnetic tape similar to that used in tape recorders, and carries three tracks holding up to 226 letters or numbers. One track gives your account number, another gives any weekly cash limit, and the third checks .that your PIN (personal identification number) is correct.
lf you tap in the correct PIN on the keys, the dispenser, which is linked to the bank’s computer, checks that the weekly limit has not been exceeded, that your account is not overdrawn, and that the card has not been reported lost or stolen. If all is in order, it subtracts the amount you ask for from the existing balance and inserts the new balance before dispensing the cash.
The smart card can hold coded identification details, including finger prints, signature, voiceprint, and even a photograph, as well as various hidden security codes making it virtually impossible to counterfeit. Its information storage space is so vast there is plenty of room for such things as bank accounts, medical history and educational attainments. Information is filed on the card under separate access codes, so the bank, for example, could read out only financial information and the doctor only medical information. End quote.
**France braces for smart card fraud onslaught
Moreno formulated the conditions of his challenge carefully, in an attempt to keep public confidence in the system, but he has had to admit that it is possible to crack the 320-bit (96-digit) RSI key and to make a fraudulent card that could be accepted by smart-card readers. Humpich says he did not post the key he cracked three years ago, and which appeared anonymously earlier this month in fr.misc.cryptologie - and which is now of course in many other sites.
It has been estimated, to introduce a new generation of 2048-bit smart cards, but it would take time to manufacture and install the readers and to distribute the 34 million cards in use in France. As long ago as 1983, it was suggested that the 96-digit code used in smart cards was not long enough, and that larger composite integers should be used. End quote.
A note to theregister.co.uk. No one said to me the cards were impossible to crack in fact they stated. “But magnetic strip cards are giving way to smart cards, which should make fraud even more difficult”.
One of the latest successes of the smart card technology is it will allow safe “over the air” use of NFC mobile phones in many applications, including public transport.”
More info on securing your credit cards as well as general hints visit.
http://www.ausis.info/HINTSTIPS.html
http://www.ausis.info/HINTSTIPS_MORE.HTML
^ Quoted from the Readers Digest book How is it done.
** Quoted from theregister.co.uk/2000/03/14/france_braces_for_smart_card/
