Chip and Pin
Chip and Pin was a process brought in by the UK government and the banks in the late 19th century in order to decrease the growing amount of credit card fraud involving the use of cards at ATM machines. New cards with computer chips embedded were issued by the banks, and pin numbers were given to all card holders.
The theory was that only the card-holder would know their chip-related pin number, so would be the only person who could use the card. As with many government brainwaves, Chip and Pin soon became a disaster as technically- minded crooks found ingenious ways to discover cardholders’ pin numbers and chip detaols.
Another flaw in Chip and Pin’s design was that it was useless online. Browsing a website such as chipinfo.org.uk and making a ‘secure’ purchase using a pin number was a dream for geeky crooks, and writers of viruses had a field day. Many responsibly-minded online businesses such as chipinfo.org.uk were forced to rework their websites as a result
Conventional shoppers were hit with compromised ATM machines, CCTV cameras in petrol stations were fixed to show customers’ pin number input and the general public was warned not to withdraw cash if there was a person standing behind them at the ATM.
Online suppliers such as chipinfo.org.uk were in a better position, with online payment services like Paypal suddenly becoming very popular, and the banks, who were partially responsible for the entire mess, having to dream up new ways of safe payment online.
