French Banks Offer Credit Card Numbers That Change Every Hour (thememo.com)

Slashdot reader schwit1 quotes The Memo: What if the numbers on your card changed every hour so that, even if a fraudster copied them, they'd quickly be out of date? That's exactly what two French banks are starting to do with their new high-tech ebank cards... The three digits on the back of this card will change, every hour, for three years. And after they change, the previous three digits are essentially worthless, and that's a huge blow for criminals... As most fraud happens a few hours or days after your card details are actually taken, this would leave criminals essentially with a bunch of useless numbers.
It's just like credit cards you have now -- other than the tiny digital screen that's embedded into the back of the card.

Comments

The way to do it

[Okian Warrior]

This seems like a misguided solution to the problem. If someone steals the card, then this feature won't help.

Bruce Schneier pointed out the real solution years ago. If your card has some processing power and a display (which this solution has), just add a keypad (similar to a calculator in credit-card size).

The keypad is for a pin. The owner keys in the pin, the card generates a one-time-use credit card number, and the waiter/salesman can take the card to the back and swipe it or whatever. When the card is lost, the thieves won't know the pin. If the number is copied, it can't be used beyond the first sale.

You can even use this on a computer peripheral. The software on the card is fixed and can't be hacked.

Multiple accounts can be stored on one card, so you only need one card instead of multiple credit cards in your wallet.

Of course, the thieves can kidnap the owner, but that's not the problem this addresses.

A smart card with pin on the card prevents all kinds of copying, skimming, lost cards, even online accounts.

Since we're switching to smart cards, I don't know why we simply haven't switched to the final solution.

Re:Magnetic strip?

[gweihir]

It is a "big lie" to keep the population docile: Tell them things are much, much better in the US than the rest of the world (which is not true by any halfway sane metric) and they will shut up in fear. Seems to be working well.

Re:Magnetic strip?

[AmiMoJo]

The UK has largely moved away from the branch model now. The UK also allows some limited payee initiated transfers, in the form of Direct Debits. They are good for paying bills and the like, you agree to let the payee set the amount every time (to cover things like phone bills that can vary) and you have to right to cancel or reverse any payment without question.