Bank card will lose its magnetic stripe 17.02.2014

The US banking system plans to replace obsolete and technically vulnerable magnetic stripe plastic credit cards, which are now used by residents of the country for cashless payments, with a new type of card. According to the Wall Street Journal, this modernization will be carried out everywhere in October 2015.

New cards will necessarily acquire chip-and-PIN technology, which has been used by banking structures in the rest of the world for several years. No matter how surprising it may seem, a magnetic stripe card is still common in the United States, despite the huge number of fraudulent counterfeiting and illegal withdrawal of amounts from the owners' accounts without their knowledge and consent. There will be no more magnetic stripes, no more black line reading.

Americans who have traveled extensively in Europe, especially in the last few years, have noted that the credit card system in the United States is seen even by them as too old-fashioned and behind the modern trends in this area in comparison with their European counterparts. Often, tourists may experience some difficulties with their "credit cards" while abroad, as in Europe some time ago they abandoned the magnetic stripe due to too high statistics for hacking such cards. However, credit and debit cards, which are still in use for cashless payments in the United States, according to experts, are technically behind the rest of the world by 10 years.

The new type of plastic cards will have a microchip instead of a magnetic stripe and will require a PIN code from the owner when performing the payment procedure. Such a plastic protection system has a number of advantages and is much safer for several reasons. Firstly, the mandatory request for a PIN code will prevent erroneous or deliberate debiting of the amount, for example, by service personnel who make a payment using your card. In a more advanced version with a chip-and-PIN system, you are required to provide a terminal into which you insert a plastic card and immediately enter the "pin code", instead of passing the card into the wrong hands without asking for a "security code". This will eliminate both the factor of the use of your funds by personnel in a dishonorable way, and will protect you from the modifications of terminals that are common today, which easily copy data from a magnetic stripe.

According to recent estimates, hackers managed to steal 70 million credit card numbers from cashless transactions during the peak shopping period from Thanksgiving to Christmas Eve. Attackers "modernized" terminals for receiving classic plastic cards with a magnetic stripe and copied information from it, which allowed them to pay in the future with the help of other people's funds. With a chip-and-PIN system, this operation will be much more difficult. At least, in order to "copy" the chip and find out the owner's password, much more effort and skill, as well as technical devices, will be required. If a system with a chip and a mandatory password cannot completely protect card users from fraud, then it will at least significantly affect the statistics of such thefts.

In addition, the magnetic strip has become too "tidbit" for hackers, as it can be hacked even by not very highly skilled villains. In France, there has been an 80% reduction in credit card fraud with the transition to a chip-and-PIN system, although these statistics are rather vague due to the unofficial source of their original publication.

As for the CIS countries, here, so far, crimes with bank cards have not reached such proportions as in Europe and the United States. Therefore, it is unlikely that any qualitative changes in this direction are expected in the near future. In addition, the culture of non-cash payment in our country is not as well developed as abroad. Therefore, outside of large cities, you may encounter the problem of both cashing out "plastic" and paying with it for services rendered and goods purchased.