Wireless card readers

ninjaburr

Just wondering about something.Everywhere ya go these days retail outlets are using them wireless credit/lazer card readers for customers to pay.
Are these using wi-fi or bluetooth or what?And how secure are they?

Martyr

i wouldn't know really.. guess its an RFID/EEPROM combination?
not bluetooth anyway, somebody has an answer.

if laser cards do use rfids, then its hard to say how secure it would be, unless somebody has researched these specific cards.
there are cryptographic protocols for rfids going through research stages that do protect against unauthorised reading, not likely implemented in current laser cards though.

EDIT:

this might interest you
Security on Smart Card and RFIDs Magnetic Card

this also, check out article "contactless payment is wave of the future" does it look familiar?

i was wondering, they still use PIN? but no signature? i think that could cause more fraud, no?

Slimjim

Bluetooth in general at the present. The link below gives some detail on security implemented on Ingenico portable devices, 7770s are the ones you'll see in most bars and restaurants.
http://www.ingenico.com/INGENICO_GALLERY_CONTENT/Documents/corporate/whitepaper/Whitepaper-Wi-fi-vs-Bluetooth.pdf

Martyr

SlimJim wrote:

Bluetooth in general at the present. The link below gives some detail on security implemented on Ingenico portable devices, 7770s are the ones you'll see in most bars and restaurants.

wow, i'm surprised..always thought bluetooth was insecure protocol.wonder how secure the ingenico protocol is? any independent research?

Black Swan

There were some ID and credit theft security concerns noted about credit cards using RFID chips in the most recent issue of PC World. They showed a pic of the easily seen chip in the American Express card, while others have special wavy lines to indicate embedded RFIDs. Also heard that there is an emerging market for credit card cases that block scanners.