RFID Enabled Credit Cards

I can't give you a professional view but can share user perspectives from using the chipped cards in Canada used by my Canadian bank and indeed all banks in Canada.

When opening my CA bank account, my banker took time to explain the difference between CA cards and USA cards. I have two bank cards, a Visa credit and a bank “client card” that is a debit card and both are chipped. It was during this account opening that I learned that the USA is pretty much the only country that has not converted to chip technology and is radically insecure compared to chipped cards. This put card security on my radar and the things I have picked up on is that the USA upgrade has been strongly resisted by card companies and banks because of the capital investment required.

Using chipped cards is more convenient. The standard way is to tap the card on a point of sale reader when paying. Range of the chip detection is less than an inch, probably much less. You have to tap the reader, a wave of the card in the vicinity does not work. Cards never leave your hand, even if you have to swipe it because the tap did not complete.

Cards have a magnetic strip for backup swiping if needed and this is why a CA credit card is functional in the USA.

The near field capability via cell phone is something that is probably going to be a feature built into most new mobile phone roll outs. A person can choose to use it or not. My understanding is that this is the most secure way to make a transaction as a single use encryption key is used for the account information transfer. There are two or three competing encryption technologies out there. One is Apple and a second is one pushed by a consortium of several credit card companies. Since user ease of management and security are paramount, my bet is on Apple technology being tops.

If the merchant’s chip reader had a working radius of 10 feet, it would pick up the chips of numerous customers, not necessarily the chip of the customer checking out. That doesn’t mean that there can be no chip readers with a wider operating radius that a scammer could use.

I’ll keep using the credit card sleeve, thank you. By the way, the last DOD ID card I was issued, about two years ago, had a chip in it. And the military issued it with a foil-lined sleeve. “Why did they do that?” he asks rhetorically.

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