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To Pay With Your Credit Card, Please Speak Up

Posted by samzenpus on from the voice-activated dept.

prostoalex writes "It's reasonable easy for a thief to steal the social security number and bank account information (which is printed on a check) as well as an address. The next generation of financial tools are fighting this problem. Business Week talks about voice verification in future debit and credit cards. "Here's how it works: A special sensor on the credit card stores its owner's previously recorded voiceprint in digital form. When the owner receives a new card, he or she speaks a password into the sensor on the card. If the voiceprint matches, the card is activated.""

16 of 300 comments (clear)

  1. so.. by Turn-X+Alphonse · · Score: 4, Insightful

    So you speak to activate it.. and if you get a cold or have an accident and can't talk?

    --
    I like muppets.
    1. Re:so.. by saned · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Forget about being unable to speak...! If this speech recognition is as good as any of my cell phones' then you'll keep repeating 4, 5 or more times, until this chip recognizes your voice, or worst case, blocks itself until the next day for security purposes...

      YMMV
      -P@

      --
      signal_connect(0, "test_top.dut.my_sig", "clk");
    2. Re:so.. by DevNull+Ogre · · Score: 4, Insightful

      The need for a side channel to serve the voice challenged population presents a (possibly huge) problem. If somebody who legitimately cannot speak can activate a credit card without speaking, then so can the bad guys. That side channel will also need to be secure.

      Could it be done properly (so that the bad guys can't get around the system)? Probably. Will it? Probably not. And, like so much so-called security, we'll end up inconvenienced in exchange for little or no benefit.

      Not that it should need saying, but security systems such as this will need to cater to everybody, not just those of us with voices.

    3. Re:so.. by cayenne8 · · Score: 3, Insightful
      "maybe you jusk freaked out because you're one of those 'tards who insists on using a card for every single purchase"

      Why do you call people who use credit cards for everything retards?

      I pretty much use mine for everything (amex mostly)...I just feel more comfortable doing that than carrying around large sums of cash. And, usually, it seesm with me, if I've got cash in my pocket...I'm more apt to spend it.

      Also, it is just convenient....I don't have to worry about making a trip to find one of my banks money machines (I can't stand paying ATM fees going to other banks' ATM's)...payments to me are direct deposit....so, I rarely need to go to a bank branch.

      And I pay it off every month...just like cash...just without the hassle...

      --
      Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.........
  2. Got to be better than the system here by Realistic_Dragon · · Score: 4, Insightful

    ...where you type your PIN into a small box attached to the cash register.

    Because, as we all know, typing your PIN into someone elses computer system is by far the best way to keep it confidential.

    ATMs are at least owned by the bank and significantly harder to tamper with in a non-obvious way.

    --
    Beep beep.
  3. even lower tech by mbkennel · · Score: 3, Insightful


    Step 1: steal identity and get credit card mailed to oneself, shameless thief.

    Step 2: record your voice onto some shmoe's card.

    Step 3: PROFIT!

  4. Why not SMS? by md17 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I would prefer that the Visa or Mastercard system sends me a SMS that I reply to in order to authorize the payment.

    1. Re:Why not SMS? by Pyr05x · · Score: 2, Insightful
      Me: Hi mobile phone shop, i'd like to buy this new mobile phone please, my old one is dead and no longer works.

      Mobile Phone Shop Person: OK, Cash or Credit?

      Me: Credit

      Mobile Phone Shop Person: Sure, enter your card here. Now we'll just wait for VISA to SMS you for authorisation....

      Me: errr.... *leaves*

  5. Re:I personally think this is their best idea so f by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

    Leave the daughters out of that. Mine has two degrees, a well paying job and does not need to "borrow" my credit cards.

  6. Re:too lazy to RTFA so someone explain... by JanneM · · Score: 2, Insightful

    OMG, what do blind people do with having to sign their name?

    They have a problem with their eyes, not their hands. They sign their name.

    --
    Trust the Computer. The Computer is your friend.
  7. Paypal Authentication by SuperSanta · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I hate to admit it - because, you know, all the fraudulent things that have happened to people with PayPal and eBay - but I have to say that PayPal is starting to do things well.

    Require you to put in your work phone number and then an automated system phones it and asks you to authenticate what is onscreen by touchpad. Atleast with this method of authentication the hackers have to spoof more than one method of communication and would leave a rather sizeable paper trail of changing account data.

    Not like reading the extra 3 digits off your card into a computer system so that someone else can steal those digits and reuse 'em.

    This post started out with better ambitions. Stupid boob tube, oh how you distract me!

  8. Biometrics DO NOT WORK by initialE · · Score: 3, Insightful

    It's been proven over and again that biometrics are a poor form of authentication that can easily be beaten. Not only are you unable to protect it (try not leaving your fingerprints everywhere, or not speaking to someone so they can't get your voice recording, or maybe even not shedding your hair so you don't leave any DNA traces), you're also unable to change it, and it's made doubly dangerous because of the way people seem to think it's effective. So maybe they should stop beating that dead horse around...

    --
    Starbucks, Harbuckle of Breath.
  9. First things first by houghi · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Start with a picture of the cardholder on the card. Some banks already do that. So unless you have a serious change in how you look, a person can SEE if you are the person on the photo or not.

    Unfortunatly that means that the wife will have to have her [SHOCKING] own card. Yes this would mean going to the bank to have your picture taken. It also means it costs money and as long as the cost of theft are below the cost of security, they will gladly pay up to whomever is stealing from them.

    --
    Don't fight for your country, if your country does not fight for you.
  10. I don't have a cell phone... by Rufus88 · · Score: 2, Insightful

    ... you insensitive clod.

    Really, I don't.

  11. Old Fashioned Way... by L0k11 · · Score: 2, Insightful
    I recently switched banks and got a visa card - instead of having my card sent to me I actually had to go into the branch, show photo ID and sign for the card.

    How is this inconvenient? I had to go into the branch to open the account anyway, going back a week later to pick up my card wasn't that bad.

    Before thinking of expensive new ideas like this people should really sit back and think do people really need this technology?

    --
    "Those who cast the votes decide nothing. Those who count the votes decide everything" -- Josef Stalin
  12. Am I the only one that doesn't care? by DJHeini · · Score: 1, Insightful

    The more annoying security they add to cards, the less likely I am to use my credit card for things like lunch at Wendy's. Right now I use my card for almost everything I can just because it's convenient and I get cash back. I don't care if someone steals my card, since all I have to do is call the card company and it's cancelled, and all my cards have zero liability anyways. Safer than carrying cash around even without all these new security features.