Olympic Athletes To Sport Visa's New Payment Ring In Rio (engadget.com)

An anonymous reader writes from a report via Engadget: Visa is introducing a new ring at the Olympic Games in Rio that will let people pay for things by waving their hand -- no phone, wallet, or battery is needed. The ring, which has yet to be named, features a secure microchip from Gemalto, and an embedded antenna. It is crafted of black or white ceramic, as metal would interfere with the antenna. There will be 20 sizes available during its trial run where it will be available exclusively for employees and partners, as well as the 45 athletes sponsored by Visa. The athletes inspired the creation of the ring, as wallets and typical wearables can be an annoyance to them when they're constantly changing uniforms. The ring is even fit for Olympic swimmers, as it is water resistant up to 50 meters. It never needs to be charged since it draws a tiny amount of power from the payment terminal and transmits far less data than Apple Pay or Android Pay. As for security, the ring can be deactivated from a smartphone, and thanks to tokenization, sensitive data is replaced by a digital identifier that can be used to process payments, so thieves won't be able to use it. There has been some controversy surrounding the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro. Some doctors have warned that the games could spark a "full-blow public health disaster" with the spread of the Zika virus.

Comments

Re:Solution looking for a problem

[Aaden42]

Let's see you keep a wallet with cash in your Olympic sized Speedo while you're between races.

On second thought, no... Let's not see that. Helluva way to start a weekend...

Only 50m

[C3lt]

Unfortunately it is only "water resistant up to 50 meters" and most Olympic swimming events involve swimming more than a single length of the pool.

Re:Only 50m

[ihtoit]

WR50m is a standard mark on equipment suited to surface swimming. For snorkelling or inshore SCUBA diving, the mark to look for is WR200m.

What the claim here basically means is that aside from the corrosive effects of chlorine, which is a moot point since the ring is made from glazed ceramic (which is chemically inert), you could do lap after lap wearing this thing and it won't or shouldn't come to any harm.

Re: Only 50m

[Applehu Akbar]

I don't think that's what it means. That refers to the static test pressure for new devices, not a swimming distance.

What's "Whoosh" in Portuguese?

barcode

[Orgasmatron]

So, this is a fancy RFID tag then? Basically, you wave your radio-barcode through the induction field and the payment terminal then goes online using the ring's serial number instead of your credit card number?

Ooh, future.

Re:barcode

[swillden]

I don't think a ring can carry a large enough antenna to draw power from the terminal

http://nfcring.com// Those draw power from nfc terminals. Wireless payments are done via NFC, they just use one time tokens. Old tech been around quite some time. They inject them into animals even.

NFC (which is a mobile phone technology) is actually a combination of two protocols, contactless smart cards, which use a variant of the T=1 protocol to communicate between a smart chip and a terminal, and RFID, which in which the tags have no processing power. RFID tags have very low power requirements and can operate with a tiny antenna.

Those NFC rings you linked are just passive RFID tags that transmit a fixed code when powered by a field. They don't contain a microprocessor, and couldn't get enough power passively to run one because they can't contain a sufficiently-large antenna. Actually, though, you're probably right that that's what they're using in Rio. Such "dumb" technology would not work for a general-purpose payment scheme, but it works fine for small, closed systems. If that's what they're using, they don't have any sort of single-use tokens; it's the same value on every usage (much like a magstripe, though not the same content).

More general solutions (including NFC and smart card payment solutions) use smart card protocols to communicate, and require a microprocessor in the payment token. Those can be powered passively by the reader field, but doing so requires a larger antenna (roughly the size of a credit card, conveniently enough). In phones they're generally powered by the device battery, though. NFC payments are *not* just one-time tokens. They may use limited-use tokens (sometimes single-use, sometimes more) but those tokens aren't simply transmitted, they're actually cryptographic keys (usually triple DES, though some systems have moved to AES) which are used to create a cryptographic message authentication code.

Re: Solution looking for a problem

[Anonymous Coward]

Where exactly would Olympic swimmers be going to buy things between races? Also what would they be buying?

Re:Solution looking for a problem

[fahrbot-bot]

Let's see you keep a wallet with cash in your Olympic sized Speedo while you're between races.

Depending on how large the available rings, male swimmers could carry them *in* their Speedo -- though waving it at or plunking it down on the pos-terminal may be problematic. No word yet on whether Visa will be offering a version of the ring suitable for piercings.

UN asking whether to cancel Olympics

[BarbaraHudson]

Not so fast, buddy

Jun 3, 1:31 PM EDT

UN ASKING EXPERT PANEL TO ASSESS ZIKA RISK AT RIO OLYMPICS
BY MARIA CHENG
AP MEDICAL WRITER

OLYMPICS NEWS

LONDON (AP) -- The World Health Organization's chief says she will convene an expert committee to consider whether the Rio de Janeiro Summer Olympics should proceed as planned, following concerns raised about the threat of the Zika virus.

In a request last month, U.S. Senator Jeanne Shaheen asked WHO Director-General Dr. Margaret Chan to evaluate whether the Rio games this year should be delayed or postponed. Chan said in a letter released by Shaheen on Friday that WHO has sent senior scientists to Brazil four times to assess the risk of Zika to the approximately 500,000 athletes and visitors expected to attend the Aug. 5-21 games in Brazil.

Follow the linky for the rest of the story.

Re:"can be deactivated using a smartphone"

[spire3661]

Banking is based on TRUST, not massive security (at the consumer level). Apple Pay is just a fancy credit card, its not 'secure' in any way that really matters. Dont put too much stock in any one implementation, its mostly a dog and pony show. Back end detection is so sensitive now that i sometimes get locked out of my account if i buy things out of my normal pattern.

Re:Solution looking for a problem

[yuriklastalov]

It could be a great boon for prostitutes too. They just need to get the PayPussy installed and they can charge by the stroke!

Re: Solution looking for a problem

[Anonymous Coward]

Condoms. The Olympics are basically a two-week orgy which is why Zika is going to be a problem.

Re:Solution looking for a problem

[A Pressbutton]

Apple already holds the patents on a similar product for male prostitutes.

sir, I think you are referring to the famed iprod (tm)