American Express Seeks To Swap Card Numbers For Secure Tokens

jfruh writes: One of the fundamental problems of the electronic payment business is that it's by and large based on the fundamentally insecure infrastructure of the credit card system, where anyone who has your 16-digit card number can make purchases on your account. American Express is trying to improve its security by moving towards the use of unique tokens for online purchases.

Comments

Token

[Impy the Impiuos Imp]

Triumph the Insult Comic Dog: "So, have you ever actually talked to a girl without giving her your secure unique token first?"

Solution

[rossdee]

Change the system to use longer numbers, say 32 digits and make it hex, not dec

They should also have a needle number (like a pin, but longer)

Re:Finally..

[ArcadeMan]

PCI is long dead, everyone has moved to PCIe by now.

Re:anyone who has your 16-digit card number

[jtownatpunk.net]

Well that fixes everything. :)

Re:anyone who has your 16-digit card number

[Mordok-DestroyerOfWo]

Actually CVV values are located in the track data which only proves you either have a copy of the card or the original. The second "fix" was CVV2 values which are printed on the back of the cards. This was to prove the card is in the hands of the person, but if that number has been comprised (which is darn easy) then all bets are off.

AMEX uses a 4 digit value printed on the front of the card.

In a few years once somebody figures out how to implement a 5 digit value on the back of a card, our worries will be over!