[Cryptography] Paper check security

[Tom Mitchell]

On Thu, Oct 1, 2015 at 11:00 AM, Arnold Reinhold <agr at me.com> wrote:

> There has been a lot of discussion here about credit card security and the
> strengths and weaknesses of the newly required in the U.S. EMV chip. (e.g
> the thread "Insecure Chip 'n' PIN starts tomorrow"). But I haven’t heard
> anything at all about the security of paper checks. Banks now allow such
> checks to be deposited by scanning them or even photographing them with a
> smart phone.
> .....


This is a gap that needs to be addressed.

For audit reasons images need to be retained...
In this world of data hacks those images may already be in the hands
of troubling agents.   Checks are numbered but the starting number
can be requested to be anything on any new check order so a system that
validates and allows one number/per account is fragile.

Quibble:  I would almost never challenge a deposit... I would challenge a
debit.

The issue with published images of checks has already caused individual
bank account owners problems.  These are uncommon but real. Massive breaches
that disclose many images would prove difficult at best to contain.





-- 
  T o m    M i t c h e l l
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