On/Off Switch Planted To Secure Credit Card Payment - Research

Credit cards have made payments easier, no doubt. The ease of carrying around a credit card and the smart service has made it's use ubiquitous in today's world. Soon enough, we'll be carrying smartphones and credit cards which would be capable of delivering the same technology using RFID or NFC.

With the arrival of contactless payments, users will be able to make pay their bills by just holding their card near a reader. This works as an advantage as users don't need to worry about their PIN getting stolen or seen and they never really have to let go of their card. But to carry out this activity, the card has to be capable of transmitting information.

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The ability of transmitting information also brings with it risks of the card getting compromised. This is so because there is always possibility of someone using their own reader to extract  information from your card without your permission. The vulnerability increases because the user might not even have taken the card out of his wallet and his card may already be transmitting information. In case of credit card theft, users can quickly act by canceling it but with contactless payments, the damage may already have been done.

To avoid any such issue, researchers at the Pittsburgh Swanson School of Engineering have devised an easy technique to ensure the security of a user's credit card. They have decided to add a traditional on/off switch to the credit card. In its default state, a credit card will in an off state, incapable of functioning or transmitting. In order to turn it on, the card owner has to place his finger or thumb within a designated area on the card. With the on/off feature added, the threat of credit card theft is almost nullified unless of course, it gets stolen.

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