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Cambridge boffins snub banking industry take down request

Mon, 17 Jan 2011

Computer scientists from Cambridge University have given the cold shoulder to attempts by a banking association to persuade them to take down a thesis which covers the shortcomings of Chip-and-PIN as a payment verification method.

As far as the bankers are concerned, Omar Choudary's masters thesis contains too much information about how it might be possible to fool a retailing terminal into thinking a PIN authorising a purchase had been entered.

Renowned cryptographer and banking security expert Professor Ross Anderson dismisses the argument that publishing the research exceeds the bounds of responsible disclosure, politely but firmly telling the UK Cards Association that the research was already in the public domain and that Choudary's work would stay online.

Chip-and-PIN is used throughout Europe and in Canada as a method to authorise credit and debit card payments. Since the potential loophole was uncovered, only Barclays Bank has responded by modifying its technology to block the potential scam, according to Mr Anderson.
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