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posted by martyb on Friday August 17 2018, @08:40AM   Printer-friendly
from the Blue-Öyster-Cult-might-beg-to-differ dept.

Submitted via IRC for Fnord666

SkimReaper, subject of a USENIX Security paper, detects most common card skimmers.

[...] At the USENIX Security Symposium here today, University of Florida researcher Nolen Scaife presented the results of a research project he undertook with Christian Peeters and Patrick Traynor to effectively detect some types of "skimmers"—maliciously placed devices designed to surreptitiously capture the magnetic stripe data and PIN codes of debit and credit cards as they are inserted into automated teller machines and point-of-sale systems. The researchers developed SkimReaper, a device that can sense when multiple read heads are present—a telltale sign of the presence of a skimmer.

Source: https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2018/08/researchers-develop-device-to-aid-in-hunt-for-stealthy-atm-card-skimmers/


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  • (Score: 3, Interesting) by SparkyGSX on Friday August 17 2018, @09:30AM (8 children)

    by SparkyGSX (4041) on Friday August 17 2018, @09:30AM (#722732)

    The US could try to catch up with the developed world and start using the chip instead of the magstripe. The chip is significantly harder to skim. It would help if the magstripe would be removed from the cards, but otherwise the banks could increase scrutiny for transactions attempted without the chip.

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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 17 2018, @09:39AM (3 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 17 2018, @09:39AM (#722734)

    We have the chip. You insert the chip 3 times, it doesn't work, then you use the magstripe.

    • (Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 17 2018, @09:49AM (2 children)

      by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 17 2018, @09:49AM (#722736)

      UK here, I've never in my life used the magstrip and only know it's possible to use it to pay because of TV/films and the recent news re the USA getting chip and pin.

      I've never heard of a chip failing to work even once.

      If that's your experience then something somewhere is fucked.

      • (Score: 4, Interesting) by kazzie on Friday August 17 2018, @12:06PM

        by kazzie (5309) Subscriber Badge on Friday August 17 2018, @12:06PM (#722767)

        Having worked in retail in the UK for a few years (until 5 years ago) I can tell you that I have used the magstrip on customers' cards when their chip is non-functioning, but rarely. More common was swiping a magstrip-only card from overseas. Even more common was phoning card payments through manually with the bank due to IT failures. (Our company hadn't kept any card franking machines for offline payments.)

        There are also some individuals who are issued a magstrip card by their bank for some disability/accessibility reason, I didn't see more that one or two of them.

      • (Score: 4, Interesting) by Aiwendil on Friday August 17 2018, @01:39PM

        by Aiwendil (531) on Friday August 17 2018, @01:39PM (#722789) Journal

        Swede here. Used magstrip+pin for a couple of years before chip+pin became commonplace.

        The chip tend to work about 9 to 18 months for me before it starts to become picky with readers, none has so far lived the entire lifetime (date issued - date expired) for me.

        Luckily it only takes a couple of days for a new card to arrive so I get a new one issued every november :) (So in reality no hassle since I do a deep dive to check the peculiarities of my accounts then - so only takes me about 2min extra to order a new card. The first logged use of the new card invalidates the old card instantly)

  • (Score: 3, Interesting) by nobu_the_bard on Friday August 17 2018, @01:47PM (3 children)

    by nobu_the_bard (6373) on Friday August 17 2018, @01:47PM (#722794)

    The chip's been in wide use in US urban areas for a few years now.

    My first chip card was about five years ago. The first couple didn't last long (my first chip card lasted only about 4 months before the chip broke) but my last one survived about a year before I had to replace it. Merchants have been speeding up their handling of the chips gradually as well.

    Rural areas and some small time businesses (taxis, etc) aren't using them a whole lot yet in my region. It takes a long time to deploy stuff out there sometimes.

    • (Score: 1) by nitehawk214 on Friday August 17 2018, @03:27PM (2 children)

      by nitehawk214 (1304) on Friday August 17 2018, @03:27PM (#722829)

      When the chip on my card died after a couple years I had to replace the card. Most readers I use won't accept my card if I swipe it saying "use chip instead".

      The only time I can swipe is if the reader has no chip (or, in almost every case, it has a chip reader but it is disabled).

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      • (Score: 2) by kazzie on Friday August 17 2018, @05:49PM (1 child)

        by kazzie (5309) Subscriber Badge on Friday August 17 2018, @05:49PM (#722867)

        Being told to inset a swiped chip card is standard. In my experience, if a card reader has tried and failed to read a chip, and the reader asks for the card to be swiped, it will then ignore the "this card has a chip" bit on the magstrip. So trying the faulty chip each time before swiping work.

        • (Score: 1) by nitehawk214 on Monday August 20 2018, @12:09AM

          by nitehawk214 (1304) on Monday August 20 2018, @12:09AM (#723526)

          Ahh, I get it. Thanks.

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