The chip and pin system is marketed as ‘tamperproof’. In which case, as the University of Cambridge points out, it is strange that a C&P terminal can be made to play classic computer games.
The real point is this: to the extent that the system is tamperproof at all,[1] it simply stops terminals from still connecting to banks if they have been ‘hacked’. On the other hand, there is nothing to stop a terminal from appearing legitimate to the consumer, while reading data illegally off the card.
I hope that a future generation of cards will actually be able to sense if they have been inserted into a legitimate machine, and reassure the consumer.
[1] And quite frankly, any such claim must be marketing hype.
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Better still, they should check whether the spouse of the cardholder knows about the purchase; whether the cardholder has a socially unacceptable level of debt; and tell the government what has been purchased and when to allow real time tracking of social malcontents who might be buying subversive literature.
Not sure what has come over me there. I think living in an economy that is still so cash/cheque based has made me forget the wonders of electronic debit. In Australia we got so used to it that it was always a surprise when someone didn’t take plastic.
And to make this not totally off topic, I feel that this “hack” is not unlike taking a Mac Classic, gutting it and putting a PC inside and then being amazed that a Mac Classic can run windows.