Contactless Debit/Credit Cards Go Mainstream

The familiar magnetic-striped credit and debit cards may be replaced with contactless cards sooner than we think. After years in the theoretical and experimental stages, contactless cards are being rolled out by major US banks.

JPMorgan Chase, MBNA, HSBC USA, Citibank and KeyBank are all planning to distribute several million contactless Visa and Mastercard cards within the next year. Major retailers are already installing contactless readers in anticipation of consumer demand.

Security concerns about contactless cards include the potential for data thieves to intercept the 128-bit triple-DES transmission between card and reader, and the possible use of contraband readers. Proposed solutions to such theft include on/off switches for cards and biometric verification.

Source: ePaynews.com