Magnetic Stripes Being Made More Secure

Computerworld - As news of Wal-Mart Stores Inc.'s plan to convert its U.S. payment terminals to smartcard-compatible systems surfaced, there was also news of efforts to make existing magnetic stripe cards more secure.

One effort that appears to have made considerable progress involves a card authentication technology that uses information from the magnetic stripe on the back of each card to create a unique digital fingerprint of the card. Each time the card is used, information from its magnetic stripe is matched with its fingerprint. The technology is designed to use data about stolen cards to detect and stop the use of counterfeit cards at the payment terminal.

A major U.S. retailer will be announcing its support for the technology within the next one month or so, said Tom Patterson, chief security officer at MagTek Inc., a Seal Beach, Calif.-based vendor of card readers, check scanners, PIN pads and other electronic payment and identification products. Patterson said the unnamed retailer is equipping about 30,000 of its outlets with payment terminals featuring a MagTek technology that captures specific magnetic stripe information and compares it to a baseline "fingerprint," stored by the card issuer, for that card. Fifth Third Bank piloted similar technology with Visa last year.

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