[Cryptography] French credit card has time-varying PIN

[Dave Horsfall]

On Mon, 3 Oct 2016, Jerry Leichter wrote:

> Hmm.  RSA developed this kind of thing at least 8 years ago.  They had 
> trouble making the cards reliable enough in real-world use - e.g., being 
> flexed in a wallet in someone's back pocket - and they also couldn't gen 
> up enough interest, so the project died.

I was wondering why; I remember seeing them, with a little LCD screen 
which showed a number that had to be keyed in to gain access.  Dunno how 
they were synced...

> What surprise me, though:  In an era of chip-and-pin - which is pretty 
> much universal in Europe by now, except for US tourists - why would you 
> want this?  What's the number printed on the card being used for?  I 
> suppose you could use it for Internet shopping and similar 
> card-not-present transactions - is that what this is really aimed at?

Yes; card not preset, to prove that it's your card (and if you lose the 
card, you're supposed to report it straight away; that way, you are 
covered for any loss).  Oh, and AU is chip/pin too, and probably NZ as 
well.  I.e. most of the civilised countries :-)

-- 
Dave Horsfall DTM (VK2KFU)  "Those who don't understand security will suffer."